Mikel Merino came off the bench again to save Spain, scoring the go-ahead goal in the 88th minute to defeat Belgium 2-1 in a World Cup quarterfinal in Inglewood, Califironia, in the United States (US) on Friday.<\/p>\n
A spot in the July 19 final will be at stake when Spain plays France in Arlington, Texas, on Tuesday. The French are seeking a third straight trip to the final having won in 2018 before losing on penalties to Argentina four years ago.<\/p>\n
Merino, who was on the field less than six minutes before scoring the winner in second-half stoppage time against Portugal in the round of 16 on Monday, entered in the 86th minute and smashed in a rebound after substitute goalkeeper Senne Lammens spilled a soft shot by Pau Cubarsi.<\/p>\n
Lammens replaced the injured Thibaut Courtois, who made four saves in the 71st minute.<\/p>\n
In the second minute of second-half stoppage time, Spain defender Aymeric Laporte bailed out goalkeeper Unai Simon with a clearance in front of the goal.<\/p>\n
Spain had not conceded a goal in the tournament through five matches but found themselves tied 1-1 at the half.<\/p>\n
Fabian Ruiz put Spain ahead in the 30th minute with a rebound off a shot by Dani Olmo, but a header by Charles De Ketelaere in the 41st was the equaliser.<\/p>\n
Spain almost opened the scoring in the 21st but a strike by star Lamine Yamal, who turns 19 on Monday, was wide of the left post and the lead came soon after.<\/p>\n
A cross by Pedro Poro from the left flank was well struck by Olmo at the center of the box, forcing a right-handed save by Courtois.<\/p>\n
Ruiz, who got the start over Barcelona\u2019s Pedri in the midfield, was in perfect position for the putback.<\/p>\n
La Roja allowed Belgium back into the match with uncharacteristic poor clearing, and Timothy Castagne sent a service in from the right to De Ketelaere, who got inside positioning on Pau Cubarsi and powered the ball past Unai Simon.<\/p>\n
The goal came a minute after Yamal again was just off target from distance, this time at the right post, ending Simon\u2019s World Cup record stretch without conceding a goal at 650 minutes dating back to the 2022 World Cup.<\/p>\n
It was wide open briefly at the hour mark when Spain\u2019s Lamine Yamal, who twice had barely missed scoring, had a shot from outside the box stopped by Courtois.<\/p>\n
At the other end, Kevin De Bruyne\u2019s shot was saved before Spain responded and Courtois denied Mikel Oyarzabal at the right post.<\/p>\n
Courtois was replaced by Lammens in the 71st minute after sustaining an apparent leg injury.<\/p>\n
Belgium captain and midfielder, Youri Tielemans sustained an undisclosed injury during warm-ups and was scratched from the starting lineup, and he was replaced by Hans Vanaken.<\/p>\n
In this quarter-final match at at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Belgium had their 18-match unbeaten streak end. Spain, on the other hand, have only won the title once, in South Africa in 2010.<\/p>\n
\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":35279,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-39335","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Lammens replaced the injured Thibaut Courtois, who made four saves in the 71st minute.","published_date":"","news_description":"Lammens replaced the injured Thibaut Courtois, who made four saves in the 71st minute.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39335","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\/39335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39336,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39335\/revisions\/39336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}