{"id":46794,"date":"2026-06-27T07:36:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T07:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/46794\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T07:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T07:36:33","slug":"uruguay-0-1-spain-uruguay-end-shocking-campaign-with-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/46794\/","title":{"rendered":"Uruguay 0-1 Spain: Uruguay end shocking campaign with defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

An error from Fernando Muslera for Alex Baena\u2019s goal just before half-time put the nail in the coffin for Uruguay\u2019s World Cup hopes, as a 1-0 defeat to Spain<\/a> was enough to end La Celeste\u2019s World Cup at the group stages for the second consecutive tournament, and also send Cape Verde to the knockouts as runners-up.<\/p>\n

Story of the match<\/p>\n

Spain started quickly, Lamine Yamal intercepting a poor pass from Rodrigo Bentancur, before finding \u200b\u200bMikel Oyarzabal, whose strike had Fernando Muslera wrong-footed, but was whisked past the post.<\/p>\n

The current European Champions<\/a> continued to race up the corners in the opening stages, though Uruguay<\/a> dealt with the majority of them quite comfortably. Muslera completely flapped at it, but they managed to clear the ball.<\/p>\n

Hydration breaks had often led to a shift in momentum, and for the first time in the match, Uruguay looked to put themselves in good attacking positions. Darwin N\u00fa\u00f1ez had not scored for his country since the Copa America in June 2024. He came within inches of a close-range chance, but he was unable to get to the ball before Unai Simon.<\/p>\n

The Athletic Club keeper had reaped the rewards for the faith shown in him as Spain’s number one with a clean sheet in the previous two group games; he seemed unconvincing from set pieces, dropping the ball for a second time while trying to claim it. Luckily for him and Spain, Agust\u00edn Canobbio\u2019s effort was fired into a group of La Roja players.<\/p>\n

Muslera error gives Spain the lead through Baena\"UruguayMuslera watches the ball roll past him, as Uruguay’s World Cup hopes also seemed to diminish in that moment. (Photo by Luke Hales\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In a tight first half, it was Spain who were gifted the lead on 42 minutes. Marcos Llorente\u2019s cross was taken in and fired towards goal by \u00c1lex Baena. Any attempt at a save from Muslera was weak, and the ball trickled through his hands and into the bottom left corner.<\/p>\n

Marcelo Bielsa clearly did not enjoy what he had seen in the first half, subbing Muslera at halftime for Sergio Rochet.<\/p>\n

Uruguay were beginning to feel a bit tetchy at the start of the second half, Guillermo Varela taking a big risk by throwing an elbow out at Baena, receiving a yellow card, and VAR not getting involved in any potential upgrade to a red.<\/p>\n

Bielsa\u2019s side had twenty minutes to try and find a goal that would take them into the knockouts, with space opening up in behind, Spain launched a threatening counter which ended with Yamal trying to dance his way through, before being stopped by Uruguay\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n

Math\u00edas Olivera registered Uruguay\u2019s first shot on target of the game, a mishit cross that needed to be pushed away from Simon in order to avoid sneaking in at the near post. De La Cruz also saw an effort pushed away, before a Spain counter with some lovely combinations between Fabi\u00e1n Ruiz, and Ferran Torres saw the Barcelona forward fire just over the bar.<\/p>\n

Canobbio loses his head after a late red card<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

It was all blowing up for Uruguay. Canobbio was sent off in the 95th minute, with a mental challenge into the studs of Pau Cubars\u00ed, and if that was not bad enough, he seemed to push the ref in the aftermath.<\/p>\n

Group H overview<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

La Celeste ended a shockingly bad World Cup with no wins and two draws; they were knocked out in the group stages for the second time in a row, and it would most likely spell the end of the Marcelo Bielsa era, which has become toxic over the recent months.<\/p>\n

However, with one failure comes another success, and the remarkable story of Cape Verde<\/a>, perhaps the story of the tournament, finishing runners-up in the group, and qualifying for the Round of 32. Their reward would be a mouthwatering tie against defending champions Argentina in Miami.<\/p>\n

Spain turned that 0-0 draw in their opener with Cape Verde into a win in their final two games and finished top of Group H on seven points. They would face the runners-up in Group J in Los Angeles on July 2nd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An error from Fernando Muslera for Alex Baena\u2019s goal just before half-time put the nail in the coffin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4700,2266,15828,938,20804,17,3691,369],"class_list":["post-46794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-alex-baena","tag-cape-verde","tag-darwin-nunez","tag-lamine-yamal","tag-marcelo-bielsa","tag-spain","tag-uruguay","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}