Spain and Belgium are familiar adversaries, with this their 23rd meeting in total (excluding The Olympics). A first battle came all the way back in 1921, with La Roja winning that clash and setting the tone for future duels. Spain has won 12 of the past games and has been beaten just five times. Luis de la Fuente and his players come into this World Cup quarterfinal off the back of four straight wins, including a last-gasp triumph over Portugal in the round of 16. Unbelievably, Spain is yet to concede at the tournament, keeping five successive clean sheets and allowing just 1.5 xG (expected goals) to date. It has the best defense by quite some distance. Belgium has only managed one shutout so far and had been largely unconvincing until its demolition of the USMNT. It’s strong going forward, however, averaging 2.6 goals per match and scoring 12 times in its last three matches. With 211 touches in the opposition box, it’s little surprise the Red Devils has scored so often. Spain is yet to reach its European Championship-winning form, but should have enough in the tank to bypass Belgium. Live Match TrackerMatch MomentumMatch StatsLineupsMatch SummaryREAD THE LATEST WORLD CUP NEWS, ANALYSIS AND INSIGHT FROM SI FCAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow