{"id":924882,"date":"2026-07-10T06:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/924882\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T06:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:09:16","slug":"unbeaten-spain-meets-star-powered-belgium-in-world-cup-quarterfinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/924882\/","title":{"rendered":"Unbeaten Spain meets star-powered Belgium in World Cup quarterfinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Spain hasn\u2019t lost and hasn\u2019t even conceded a single goal at this year\u2019s World Cup<\/a>. La Roja is unbeaten in 36 straight competitive matches since March 2023.<\/p>\n

This lofty standard of play clearly doesn\u2019t scare Belgium, which is on a surging trajectory of its own heading into the teams\u2019 World Cup quarterfinal match on Friday.<\/p>\n

While Spain has been Europe\u2019s most consistent winner for the past 3 1\/2 years, Belgium has played its way into position for what could be the final chance for its golden generation to do something spectacular together.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is already talking about us going home, but we believe we can do it,\u201d Belgium coach Rudi Garcia said through an interpreter Thursday. \u201cWe believe we can pull off an upset, and we will do everything we can to get to the semis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tantalizing clash at SoFi Stadium matches a pre-tournament favorite and the reigning European champions against Belgium, which has never quite reached its full potential despite the big-money stars across its roster.<\/p>\n

The winner faces France in the Dallas area on Tuesday in the semifinals, and Spain is enough of a perceived favorite that coach Luis De La Fuente had to parry several questions from his national media Thursday about that potentially titanic clash with Les Bleus.<\/p>\n

But Belgium realizes the opportunity it has after blowing out the co-host United States 4-1<\/a> on Monday in its best performance of the tournament and extending the Red Devils\u2019 own unbeaten streak to 18 matches across all competitions. Garcia and Romelu Lukaku said they weren\u2019t worried about their gleeful celebrations of their last victory<\/a> turning the Los Angeles-area crowd against them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think (before) the past several days, we had 12 million Belgium fans, and now I think we\u2019ve got millions and millions that have joined our ranks across the globe,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what it will be like tomorrow, but it\u2019s not the crowd that scores the goals. It\u2019s not the fans that score the goals. We\u2019re going to focus on what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s defense has been impenetrable, with Rodri orchestrating the effort superbly from midfield. Goalkeeper Unai Sim\u00f3n has only had to make six saves in five World Cup matches, yet Belgium has enough offensive talent to make any goalkeeper work \u2014 including Kevin De Bruyne, Youri Tielemans, veteran striker Lukaku, playmaker Leandro Trossard and Charles De Ketelaere, who had two goals against the Americans.<\/p>\n

Lukaku likened the feeling of this match to the Red Devils\u2019 meeting with Brazil in the World Cup quarterfinals eight years ago in Russia \u2014 a game his team won 2-1 in stunning fashion.<\/p>\n

\u201cTomorrow we need to play the perfect game if we want to proceed,\u201d said Lukaku, Belgium\u2019s career goals leader. \u201cSpain is an excellent team. They\u2019ve been playing the same type of football since 2008. They\u2019re well prepared, but we have certain assets that can make life difficult for them. We love the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite a wealth of good players around teenage sensation Lamine Yamal, Spain could be vulnerable simply because it hasn\u2019t scored consistently, getting seven of its nine goals at the World Cup during routs of overmatched Saudi Arabia and Austria. La Roja managed only Mikel Merino\u2019s clutch injury-time goal while beating Portugal 1-0<\/a> in the round of 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately we have been very focused on the defensive aspect, but we\u2019ve also historically scored a lot,\u201d De La Fuente said. \u201cI think we have the most attempts on goal (in this World Cup). Perhaps a little bit more efficacy, and we might also be the squad that scores the most. But we\u2019re so good on the attack that it gives the opponent little opportunity to come the other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Striker Mikel Oyarzabal scored two goals in Spain\u2019s first appearance at SoFi last week, leading Spain to a 3-0 rout of Austria<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve managed to build a really solid core group,\u201d Oyarzabal said. \u201cRegardless of whether things go well or badly, or who\u2019s playing, the team responds, and I think that\u2019s crucial. We\u2019ve achieved something very difficult: creating that kind of unity within the national team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yamal\u2019s time?<\/p>\n

Yamal still hasn\u2019t broken out in his first World Cup, scoring only one goal for Spain. His teammates and coaches say they\u2019re quite satisfied with his overall tournament performance, which began with limited playing time in the group matches while he returned from a hamstring injury incurred in April with Barcelona.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe he hasn\u2019t contributed goals, but he brings all the attack,\u201d midfielder Gavi said. \u201cHe\u2019s incredible. I hope that now if we win, hopefully in the semifinals or the final, too, if we win, then he scores goals so people understand what he does for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

De La Fuente praised Yamal for an excellent two-way performance against Portugal. The coach even credited Yamal for the fact that Nuno Mendes, who was attempting to mark Yamal, had to leave early in the second half with an injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very motivated,\u201d De La Fuente said. \u201c(Yamal) wants to do so much, and we know the best version of him, the attacking Lamine, is something we haven\u2019t seen yet in this World Cup. He had to work on the defensive side quite a bit because we were facing a powerhouse of a rival. I think this was an exercise in maturity for Lamine. He\u2019s going to perform on the attacking front, that\u2019s clear. He\u2019s got incredible potential, and it\u2019s going to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Injury concerns for Belgium<\/p>\n

Belgium lost midfielder Amadou Onana<\/a> to a knee injury this week, forcing a tactical change to preserve its defensive structure. That change might simply be the return of De Bruyne, who likely didn\u2019t play against the U.S. to keep him in top condition for Friday\u2019s match.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Spain hasn\u2019t lost and hasn\u2019t even conceded a single goal at this year\u2019s World…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":924883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[373154,111,356866,276,370898,6061,48734,140810,36084,142034,142048,142039,39422,223555,105395,369867,221,128,353987,62,353986,67,132,68,366795],"class_list":["post-924882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-amadou-mvom-onana","tag-belgium","tag-belgium-national-soccer-team","tag-california","tag-charles-de-ketelaere","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-gavi","tag-kevin-de-bruyne","tag-leandro-trossard","tag-luis-de-la-fuente","tag-mikel-merino","tag-mikel-oyarzabal","tag-nuno-mendes","tag-rodrigo-hernandez","tag-romelu-lukaku","tag-rudi-garcia","tag-soccer","tag-spain","tag-spain-national-soccer-team","tag-sports","tag-unai-simon","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-youri-tielemans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116894195400276840","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}