Ronaldo Bids Farewell As Spain Eliminate Po…

Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images

Spain progressed to the quarter-finals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a late 1-0 win over Portugal at the AT&T Stadium on Monday night.

Fixture: Portugal v Spain
Score: 0-1
Goalscorers: Merino (91′)

La Roja eased to a 3-0 victory over Austria to book their spot in the round of 16, while Portugal secured a controversial 2-1 win over Croatia thanks to a late winner from Goncalo Ramos, who kept his spot on the bench as Ronaldo started yet again.

A lot of was made of the battle in midfield leading up to the encounter but the clash was evenly matched in the early stages of the encounter, although Lamine Yamal and Alex Baena were able to force a couple good saves from goalkeeper Diogo Costa.

Yamal did see a bit of the ball as the first half went on but he came up against the ever-reliable Nuno Mendes, who was proving his worth by stifling the Spanish winger on a few occasions in and around the 18-yard area.

Portugal, meanwhile, had to wait until the final ten minutes of the first half to carve out their first chance when the lively Joao Felix nodded Pedro Neto’s cross back into the path of Ronaldo, who saw his first-time flick kept out by Unai Simon.

It was more of the same in the second half, but Portugal were dealt a big blow ten minutes into the second period when Mendes was forced off with an injury, as coach Roberto Martinez opted introduce Nelson Semedo instead of Diogo Dalot.

The encounter began to fizzle out after the hour mark as Spain were unable to turn their dominance into clear-cut openings while the Portugal lacked the quality and more importantly pace to hurt the opposition defenders on the counter-attack .

With the game seemingly headed for extra-time, Spain popped up with the winning goal in the 90th minute when substitute Ferran Torres played in Mikel Merino, who calmly slotted into the bottom corner to seal their spot in the quarter-finals.

The defeat also signalled the end of Ronaldo’s World Cup career, as the 40-year-old confirmed prior to the clash that this would be his last tournament despite Portugal being one of the hosts for the 2030 World Cup.

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