Mikel Merino just keeps showing up in the moments that matter. Two World Cup knockout games, both stuck at a draw late. Both times it’s his left boot that breaks the deadlock. Against Portugal in Dallas it was a stoppage-time winner. Here in the California sun, he was the one following the play, the one who saw the spill before anyone else, the one who slammed it into the roof of the net with two minutes left.
Belgium’s Senne Lammens will see that moment over and over. Pau Cubarsi’s shot from distance wasn’t anything special. It was a routine save for any World Cup goalkeeper. But Lammens couldn’t hold it. The ball squirted loose, right into Merino’s path, and Spain had a 2-1 win that sends them into a semifinal against France on Tuesday in Dallas. Air conditioning, Kylian Mbappe, and everything on the line.
The cruel part is that Belgium had played well enough to win this thing. They were organized, dangerous on the counter, and they had Thibaut Courtois in goal. Until they didn’t. Twenty minutes from the end, Courtois grabbed his left thigh and went down in tears. You don’t see that often from a guy who’s won everything there is to win. He knew. Lammens came on, and the story flipped.
The moment that broke Belgium
Spain hadn’t lost a competitive match in 36 games going in. Their defensive record was absurd: 650 World Cup minutes without conceding a goal before Charles De Ketelaere equalized just before halftime. That streak was always going to end eventually. What nobody expected was that the winning goal would come from a routine shot that a backup keeper couldn’t handle.
Cubarsi stepped into the shot with nobody pressuring him. Lammens got both hands on it. He just couldn’t keep it out of play. Merino was the only one who reacted, and he was already mid-celebration before the ball hit the net.
De Bruyne nearly stole it
Kevin De Bruyne was the best player on the field for long stretches. Playing without an armband that went to Youri Tielemans before he pulled his hamstring in warmups, De Bruyne slipped a first-time pass to Timothy Castagne that set up De Ketelaere’s equalizer. Later, with Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon stuck 40 yards from his goal, De Bruyne nearly chipped him from distance. Rodri blocked it, the way Rodri always does.
Belgium had chances after halftime too. Jeremy Doku was a nightmare on the left for most of the first hour. Maxim De Cuyper should have scored from close range but hit the side netting. Lamine Yamal kept cutting inside and missing by inches, but Spain’s attack never really clicked the way it did in the group stage.
The matchup we’ve been waiting for
Spain vs. France in a World Cup semifinal. That’s the kind of game that makes the two-week slog of a monthlong tournament worth it. France has Mbappe, who has been mostly quiet so far but hasn’t had to be. Spain has a defense that just proved it’s not invincible and a habit of making games harder than they need to be.
Fabian Ruiz gave Spain the lead in the 30th minute after Courtois parried a Dani Olmo shot right to him. It was a soft goal from a goalkeeper who almost never gives up soft goals. Maybe that was the warning sign nobody wanted to read. Either way, Spain is through, Belgium is going home, and Merino is the guy who keeps writing the scripts nobody saw coming.
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