Mikel Merino stars again as Spain edges Belgium 2-1 in the World Cup quarterfinals

Mikel Meri­no scored in the 88th minute on a re­bound yield­ed by back­up Bel­gium goal­keep­er Senne Lam­mens, and Spain ad­vanced to the World Cup semi­fi­nals with a 2-1 vic­to­ry on Fri­day.

Meri­no was the late hero for the sec­ond straight match for Spain, which will face tour­na­ment fa­vorite France in the semi­fi­nals on Tues­day in the Dal­las area.

Meri­no came on in the 86th minute and scored on his sec­ond touch of the match, charg­ing in­to the box and pounc­ing af­ter Lam­mens spilled a re­bound of Pau Cubarsí’s long shot.

The Ar­se­nal for­ward al­so scored as a sub­sti­tute ear­ly in in­jury time to se­cure Spain’s 1-0 vic­to­ry over Por­tu­gal in the round of 16.

Lam­mens, the Man­ches­ter Unit­ed keep­er, was forced in­to the match in the 71st minute af­ter long­time Bel­gium keep­er Thibaut Cour­tois left with an ap­par­ent thigh in­jury.

Bel­gium des­per­ate­ly pressed for an equal­iz­er in the fi­nal min­utes, but Aymer­ic La­porte volleyed the best chance out of the box.

Fabián Ruiz scored in the 30th minute for Spain, but Bel­gium for­ward Charles De Kete­laere scored the first goal al­lowed by Spain in the en­tire World Cup in the 41st minute.

Spain re­mained un­beat­en since March 2023 in a streak of 37 match­es.