Mikel Merino Needs 117 Seconds and Two Touches to Send Spain Past Belgium Into the Semi-Finals

Spain are into the World Cup semi-finals, and once again they left the decisive work to the last man through the door. They beat Belgium 2-1 at SoFi Stadium on Friday night, in front of 70,492, and the winner belonged to Mikel Merino, who came off the bench in the 88th minute and scored with his second touch after stand-in goalkeeper Senne Lammens spilled Pau Cubarsi's low shot. Merino had been on the pitch for 117 seconds. His only touch inside the Belgium box won the tie. Spain will now play France in Dallas on Tuesday for a place in the final, and Belgium go home having been beaten by a team that needed one mistake and knew exactly who to send on to collect it.

A first half both goalkeepers will want back

The opening goal came from the sort of error Thibaut Courtois has spent a career not making. On 30 minutes a shot came through that he would normally swallow, the handling was loose, and Fabian Ruiz was on the rebound before anyone in red and black had reacted, slamming home from close range. It was an untidy goal at the end of a tidy Spanish move, and it fit the pattern of a side that has made a habit of taking the small openings because opponents rarely allow them large ones.

Belgium's response said plenty about the game they had come to play. On 41 minutes Timothy Castagne swung in a teasing cross from the right and Charles De Ketelaere, pressed into service as a makeshift number nine, rose to head it beyond Unai Simon. The equaliser carried a small piece of history with it. It was the first goal Spain had conceded at this World Cup, and the manner of it, a full-back's delivery and a converted forward's header, suggested Belgium had studied the one route into a defence that does not offer many. At the interval the tie was level and genuinely open, which is more than most sides have managed against this Spain.

Courtois keeps Belgium in it, then leaves them exposed

Whatever frustration Courtois felt about the first goal, he spent the second half repaying it with interest. Two minutes after the restart Cubarsi released Lamine Yamal through on goal, and Courtois won the one-on-one that would have put Spain back in front. On 55 minutes Belgium built their best move of the night, Jeremy Doku and Kevin De Bruyne exchanging a lovely one-two to send Maxim De Cuyper in behind, only for the wing-back to smash his finish carelessly into the side-netting. Then came the busiest spell of Courtois's evening, a Yamal effort beaten away on 61 minutes and a save from Mikel Oyarzabal moments later. Belgium were hanging on, but they were hanging on behind a goalkeeper who looked determined to drag them to penalties himself.

The night had one more cruelty in its pocket. On 72 minutes Courtois pulled up injured and left the pitch visibly emotional, replaced by Senne Lammens, a substitute goalkeeper sent into a World Cup quarter-final with 18 minutes to survive. He nearly managed it. On 88 minutes Cubarsi worked a low, opportunistic strike towards goal, Lammens got hands to it and could not hold it, and Merino, sent on moments earlier by Luis de la Fuente for precisely this kind of ending, turned home the rebound. The moment was as excruciating for Lammens as it was exhilarating for Merino. One goalkeeper had spent an hour keeping Belgium alive. The man who replaced him needed one loose grip to end their World Cup.

Merino, who also scored a late winner against Portugal in the previous round, was asked afterwards about his habit of arriving at the right time. "I've done this again, and it's happened to me again, so it would seem that coincidence exists," he said. "If you go in prepared, it can happen. If you're ready and you try, it can happen for you. I'm very, very pleased. Two matches to win a World Cup is a dream come true. Hopefully we can achieve it." The Arsenal midfielder has built a club reputation on decisive late goals, and he has now carried the trick into consecutive World Cup knockout ties.

The machine keeps running

The result stretched Spain's unbeaten run to 36 matches, a sequence that reaches back to March 2023, and it gave De la Fuente a record of his own: 13 major tournament matches without defeat, more than any other international manager. Numbers like that can feel abstract until you watch how they are assembled. Spain did not overwhelm Belgium. They passed patiently, fed almost everything through Yamal, who finished top of the night's creative charts with six efforts at goal and four successful dribbles, and trusted that sooner or later a door would open. Rodri, the captain, has now made 62 line-breaking passes in the final third at this tournament, equalling the record Toni Kroos set in 2014, and it is his tempo that decides when Spain hurry and when they wait.

The waiting is the point. Spain have already shown at this World Cup that they can win while frustrated, grinding out a 1-0 win over Uruguay and easing past Saudi Arabia with four, and Friday added the harder version: concede for the first time in the tournament, watch a goalkeeper defy you for an hour, and still find the winning goal through the 16th outfield player used. Belgium, who had looked so sharp in dismantling the United States 4-1, gave one of the tournament favourites their most uncomfortable night yet and were beaten by the thinnest of margins. That is no disgrace. It is simply what this Spain side does to good teams.

Verdict: a semi-final worthy of a final

Tuesday in Dallas now pairs the two most complete sides left in the competition. France beat Morocco 2-0 in Boston to book their place, riding Kylian Mbappe's recovery from a missed penalty, and they arrive as the tournament favourites. Spain arrive as the team nobody has beaten in more than three years. Something has to give, and the contrast in how the two sides win is the whole appeal: France wait for their best player to settle matters, Spain wait for the game to tilt and then send for whichever specialist the moment requires.

For Belgium there is a quieter story worth telling. A squad in transition, missing an established number nine badly enough to convert De Ketelaere into one, pushed Spain closer than the group-stage evidence suggested they could, and lost only when injury removed the world-class goalkeeper holding the whole thing together. The margins at this stage are cruel and Lammens will carry Friday night for a while, through no great fault of his own beyond a ball that would not stick. Spain, meanwhile, move on with the calm of a side that has stopped being surprised by its own late escapes. Merino put it best without meaning to. It keeps happening to them because they keep preparing for it to happen. France are the first opponents in a month who might prepare better.

Sources: Sky Sports.