{"id":39261,"date":"2026-07-10T11:12:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T09:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=39261"},"modified":"2026-07-10T11:12:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T09:12:46","slug":"spain-face-toughest-world-cup-test-against-belgium","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/spain-face-toughest-world-cup-test-against-belgium\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Spain face toughest World Cup test against Belgium&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Spain coach Luis de \u200bla Fuente said on Thursday that Belgium would provide his side&#8217;s sternest test yet \u200cin the World Cup quarter finals, with his team having reached the last eight without conceding a goal.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Among the favourites to lift the trophy, Spain booked their place in the quarter finals with a 1-0 win over Portugal and \u200bhave grown into the tournament with a balanced side that is comfortable in possession, solid \u200bin defence and boasts enough attacking quality to trouble any opponent.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Tomorrow&#8217;s game will \u2060be the hardest that we&#8217;ve faced to this point,&#8221; de la Fuente told reporters in Los \u200bAngeles Stadium, pointing out that Belgium&#8217;s experienced squad includes players with proven pedigree at some of Europe&#8217;s \u200bbiggest clubs.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Belgium is a very powerful team. These are players who are used to winning. It&#8217;s going to be a challenging match.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The winners of Friday&#8217;s game in Los Angeles will face France in Tuesday&#8217;s semi-final in Dallas after \u200bLes Bleus earlier beat Morocco 2-0, with goals from Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Asked about the prospect \u200bof meeting France, de la Fuente said he watched the game and thought the French were the better team, \u200cbut \u2060said Spain were completely focused on Belgium.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Trust me we are only thinking about Belgium tomorrow,&#8221; he said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>While Spain have looked imperious at the back, they are likely to look for attacking inspiration from 18-year-old Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal and Mikel Oyarzabal, who has already scored four goals at the tournament.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Lamine, \u200bregarded as one of the \u200bworld&#8217;s brightest young talents, \u2060has scored only once at the World Cup so far, well behind leading marksmen Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, who have eight goals apiece.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>However, \u200bde la Fuente said Yamal had shown growing maturity, pointing to the teenager&#8217;s \u200bdefensive contribution \u2060in Spain&#8217;s win over Portugal, and backed his attacking quality to make the difference when it mattered.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;He&#8217;s going to perform on the attacking front,&#8221; de la Fuente said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The coach added that Spain&#8217;s success had been \u2060built \u200bon collective effort rather than individual brilliance, stressing that every \u200bplayer had put the team first.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":39262,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-39261","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Luis de \u200bla Fuente said Belgium would provide his side's sternest test yet \u200cin the quarter finals","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39261","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\/39261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39263,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39261\/revisions\/39263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}