5 Things we learned from Spain’s late victory over Portugal

1. A late dagger sends Spain through to the quarter-finals. I’ve been away for a few days and whilst I haven’t been able to write on a lot of the Round of 16 games I’ve been watching as many possible, now that I’m back I got treated to a bit of a bore fest to be honest. The first half actually started with quite a high tempo with Spain creating arguably the chance of the match early on as Dani Olmo slipped Mikel Oyarzabal through 1 on 1 with the keeper but the Spanish striker scuffed his shot wide to keep the game at 0-0, Portugal had a few openings but nothing significant as this resolute Spanish defence kept Ronaldo and co at bay in the first half. The second half started off with Nuno Mendes having to come off through injury for Nelson Semedo which gave Lamine Yamal a new lease of life as before then the PSG full-back was getting the better of the youngster, as the half wore on Spain looked the more likely to score and eventually did in the 90th minute as Ferran Torres played a lovely ball through to Mikel Merino who went low under Diogo Costa to put Spain 1-0 up with five minutes of added time left to play. Bernardo Silva had a great chance with a header in added time but it went just over the bar as Spain saw out the game to make their way into the quarter-finals of the World Cup, are they ever going to concede?

2. Spain are running it back to 2010. The Spanish side in 2010 only conceded 2 goals in the entire tournament and went the entire knockouts without conceding a single goal on the run to winning the tournament, this Spain team has yet to concede a goal in the tournament and now has played an extra game compared to the 2010 World Cup. They made hard work of it today but did have plenty of chances to go 1 or 2 up before the 90th minute, you’d expect Oyarzabal to put his chance away 9 times out of 10 along with Diogo Costa making a brilliant save from Alex Baena’s effort in the first half. As the second half wore on they definitely looked the more likely to score which was aided by Nuno Mendes’ injury which allowed Lamine Yamal to come into the game which we didn’t see in the first half, two substitutes linked up for the winner as Ferran played a lovely pass through to Merino who coolly slotted the winner and the Arsenal man has always popped up with big goals for club and country like against Germany in the semi-finals of the Euros in 2024 and now the winner against Portugal in 2026. There’s not many better super-subs than Mikel Merino, onto the quarter-finals for Spain.

3. Just not good enough from Portugal yet again. I never really fancied Portugal going into this game but I feel like it was there for the taking at times throughout the 90, the scare against Croatia clearly had no impact on the team who yet again fail to deliver at a major tournament. The team selection first of all was horrific from Roberto Martinez starting Joao Felix over Rafael Leao who in my opinion was Portugal’s best attacker against Croatia along with keeping Pedro Neto on the right who has been rubbish all tournament, the three in midfield have been such a let down this tournament and again today failed to control the game allowing Spain to build momentum towards the end of the game which led to the goal. You can talk about Ronaldo all you want but he’s way down in Portugal’s problems this World Cup in my opinion, for Roberto Martinez to leave Goncalo Ramos on the bench for 90 minutes after he scored the winner against Croatia in the last round says it all and for me he’s been Portugal’s biggest problem in this World Cup like he was for Belgium before. The quicker Portugal see the back of him the better in my opinion, a terrible manager who kills golden generations.

4. What have I missed? Okay so the last game I covered before leaving was Spain vs Austria on Thursday last week, the game after was arguably the game of the tournament so far as Cape Verde took Argentina to extra-time where they were knocked out by an unfortunate own-goal in the end. What a story though for Cape Verde in this World cup, Switzerland knocked Algeria out comfortably whilst Egypt put Australia out on penalties. After that we saw Colombia put Ghana out in a cagey game whilst Morocco edged Canada in a game where the score-line really doesn’t tell the story, France edged Paraguay 1-0 in one of the most diabolical games of football I’ve ever seen. A disgusting performance from both the referee and the Paraguay players, shameful to say the least. On Sunday we saw Norway stun Brazil in a game that will probably be known as the ‘ Erling Haaland show’ with the City striker coming alive in the last 10 minutes to steer Norway through after Brazil missed a plethora of chances including a penalty and an Endrick 1 on 1, in the early morning we saw England shock Mexico at the Azteca with Bellingham yet again proving the doubters wrong with two massive goals to get England through. That brings us here where Spain make their first quarter-final of the World Cup since 2010, can they go all the way?

5. Who will Spain be playing next? Up next for Spain is either the USA or Belgium who play each other later on tonight, you’d fancy Spain against both but considering how strong they’ve looked defensively so far but I suppose we’ll have to wait a few more hours to find out who’s going through. This quarter-final has been marred with controversy as Balogun’s red card has been ‘suspended’ so it’ll be interesting to see the response from both sides after the White House contacted FIFA to get the red card suspended, a bit fishy if you ask me but it should add a bit of spice to the match which is never a bad thing from a neutral’s point-of-view. Hopefully it’s another cracker in what’s fast becoming one of the best World Cup’s we’ve ever seen.