{"id":39029,"date":"2026-07-07T18:18:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=39029"},"modified":"2026-07-07T18:18:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:18:06","slug":"merino-strikes-late-as-spain-edge-portugal-to-reach-world-cup-quarter-finals","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/merino-strikes-late-as-spain-edge-portugal-to-reach-world-cup-quarter-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Merino strikes late as Spain edge Portugal to reach World Cup quarter-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Substitute Mikel Merino scored in added time as Spain beat Portugal 1-0 in the World Cup round of 16 on Monday, sending his side into the quarter-finals while extending their run without conceding a goal.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Merino struck in the 91st minute after fellow substitute Ferran Torres slipped a through pass behind Portugal\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 European champions Spain recorded another clean sheet as Portugal were eliminated from the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to announce his international retirement following Portugal\u2019s exit.<\/p>\n<p>Spain face United States or Belgium in last eight.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32970,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-39029","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to announce his international retirement following Portugal\u2019s exit.","published_date":"","news_description":"Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to announce his international retirement following Portugal\u2019s exit.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39030,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39029\/revisions\/39030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}