SPAIN'S ROAD TO THE FINAL
Published: 16/07/2026 | By: Alex Courbat
While Argentina spent the knockout rounds staging one great escape after another, Spain took the opposite route to the World Cup final. Luis de la Fuente's side have been almost serene by comparison, a team that has conceded precisely once across seven matches and has generally made winning look less like a battle and more like an inevitability.
It didn’t start that way. Group H opened with a goalless draw against debutants Cape Verde, a result that briefly raised eyebrows given the gulf in stature between the two sides. Spain answered in the way European champions are supposed to, brushing aside Saudi Arabia and then edging Uruguay 1-0, enough to top the group and set up a round of 32 tie with Austria that turned into their first real statement of intent. Mikel Oyarzabal scored twice either side of a Pedro Porro header, and the 3-0 win in Los Angeles gave Spain their first knockout victory at a World Cup since they lifted the trophy back in 2010.
The last 16 brought a genuine slice of history, and a Spanish side that had to work considerably harder than the eventual scoreline suggests. Cristiano Ronaldo, playing what he had announced beforehand would be his final World Cup, went toe to toe with a teenage Pau Cubarsi for long stretches of a tight, tactical contest in Dallas, and it took until the 91st minute for anyone to find a way through. Substitutes Ferran Torres and Mikel Merino combined superbly, Torres slipping the ball through for Merino to finish low past Diogo Costa, and Spain's defence held firm exactly as it had all tournament to send Ronaldo home empty handed.
Belgium gave Spain their sternest test yet in the quarter-finals, and their first goal conceded of the entire competition. Fabian Ruiz put La Roja ahead midway through the first half, only for Charles De Ketelaere to level for the Red Devils before the break. True to the pattern that has defined their tournament, Spain found the answer late, Mikel Merino popping up again with an 88th-minute winner to make it back to back knockout goals from the bench and send Spain through 2-1 to a semi-final against the team many had installed as tournament favourites.
That semi-final against France, billed by plenty as the true final before the final, ended up being the most one-sided of the lot. Spain drew a penalty when Lucas Digne fouled Lamine Yamal, and Oyarzabal converted it clinically for his fifth goal of the tournament. Pedro Porro doubled the lead early in the second half with a slick give-and-go finish past Mike Maignan, and from there Spain simply shut the game down, restricting Kylian Mbappe and France's array of attacking talent to a paltry 0.3 expected goals across the full 90 minutes. A 2-0 win, delivered with the same defensive discipline that has underpinned the whole campaign, sent Spain back to a World Cup final for the first time since their triumph 16 years ago.
Where Argentina has needed drama and nerve to get through, Spain have relied on control, patience and a defence that has barely been breached. Two very different routes to MetLife Stadium, and now just one match left to decide which method wins out.
