Key events10 Jul 2026Full time: Spain 2-1 Belgium10 Jul 2026GOAL! Spain 2-1 Belgium (Merino 88)10 Jul 2026Courtois forced off injured10 Jul 2026Half-time: Spain 1-1 Belgium10 Jul 2026GOAL! Spain 1-1 Belgium (De Ketelaere 41)10 Jul 2026GOAL! Spain 1-0 Belgium (Ruiz 30)10 Jul 2026Kick-off10 Jul 2026Tielemans injured in warm-up10 Jul 2026Starting lineups: De Bruyne and Doku return for Belgium10 Jul 2026PreambleThat’ll do from me. Sid Lowe’s report is here. Hasta luego.
double quotation markMikel Merino’s amazing moment arrived once more, a country circling the corner flag with him. The man who came on to scored the late, late goals that took Spain into a European championship semi-final two years ago and a World Cup quarter-final four days ago, only went and did it again. This is some hat-trick, history made here. Introduced as a sub on 85:32 with Spain struggling to find a way through against Belgium, Merino was the man most alert in the whole of Los Angeles, pouncing on a loose ball on 87:28 to send Spain to the semi-final against France next week.
Rudi Garcia’s contract is up as Belgium manager after this tournament, but maybe he’s done enough to warrant an extension. The squad is clearly in transition, with De Bruyne, Lukaku and Courtois seemingly on the way out and Doku, Trossard and Onana coming to the fore.It’s worth saying that they were missing their first-choice midfield today against possibly the best at the World Cup – Amadou Onana did his ACL against the USA and Youri Tielemans pulled up in the warm-up.Anyway, they’ll always have that day against the co-hosts in Seattle. And the dancing.Belgium's Romelu Lukaku and Belgium's Kevin De Bruyne look dejected after their World Cup quarter-final defeat to Spain. Photograph: Bruno Fahy/Belga/Shutterstock“Two excellent attacks going up against defenses that have a mistake in them, France v Belgium is nearly guaranteed to be a cracking game” – Kári TuliniusWere you not listening/reading, Kári? But yes, I know what you mean.Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise, Désiré Doué and Lamine Yamal – all on same pitch. Hopefully Nico Williams is fit to start too.Quarter-final results
