Mikel Merino emerged as Spain’s hero yet again as the substitute scored in the 88th minute to stun Belgium and book his side’s place in the World Cup semi-finals. Having come off the bench to score a 91st-minute winner against Portugal in the last 16, the Arsenal midfielder stepped up with another late strike to decide a closely contested quarter-final tie in Los Angeles.
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Kylian Mbappe scored his eighth goal of this World Cup to make up for an earlier missed penalty as France proved too good for Morocco and moved into the semi-finals. Mbappe won the first-half penalty when he was fouled by Manchester United defender Noussair Mazraoui, but his poorly hit spot-kick was comfortably saved by Yassine Bounou. The Real Madrid striker made amends in the 60th minute with a superb curling effort from just inside the penalty area to give France a deserved lead. Ballon d’Or holder Ousmane Dembele doubled France’s advantage six minutes later
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Ruben Vargas struck the winning spot-kick as Switzerland beat Colombia 4-3 in a penalty shoot-out to reach the World Cup quarter-finals after a goalless 120 minutes in Vancouver. Sevilla winger Vargas held his nerve after a cagey encounter of few goalscoring chances at the Vancouver Stadium and Switzerland will next face defending champions Argentina on Sunday in Kansas.
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Argentina survived another almighty scare before delivering a scarcely believable second-half comeback to break Egypt hearts and reach the quarter-finals of the 2026 World Cup. The reigning world champions – sent to extra time by Cape Verde in the last round – had looked set for a shock exit against the Pharaohs, who led 2-0 thanks to goals from Yasser Ibrahim and Mostafa Zico. But Cristian Romero halved the deficit 11 minutes from time before Lionel Messi equalised five minutes later and set up a nail-biting finish.
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Charles de Ketelaere scored twice for Belgium as the United States became the third and final co-host to be knocked out of the World Cup. It was a largely lethargic display by the US who had star striker Folarin Balogun in their starting line-up after President Donald Trump had asked Fifa to review his ban following his red card in the previous round. Belgium dominated the game taking the lead in the ninth minute when Nicolas Raskin’s pass across the face of goal was tapped in by De Ketlaere.
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