Merino bags late winner for Spain to Ronaldo and Portugal out of World Cup

Spain's Mikel Merino celebrates scoring their first goal with Fabian Ruiz

Spain became the first team in FIFA World Cup (WC) history to record six successive clean sheets, beating Portugal 1-0 in Dallas in the round of 16 to leave their Iberian neighbours without back-to-back World Cup knockout wins since 2006.

Thanks to his four tournament goals in the opening four games, Mikel Oyarzabal was confident to try his luck from 25 yards amid an untidy start, but Diogo Costa’s save was ultimately a simple one.

The striker still should have added to his tally shortly after when played through by Dani Olmo, only to drag his effort wide.

Looking to go level with Oyarzabal in the scoring charts was Cristiano Ronaldo, and his first chance came 12 minutes in, but the tight angle allowed Spain shot-stopper Unai SimF3n to make a comfortable save.

At the other end, Costa survived a tougher test as he thwarted Lamine Yamal before getting to his feet and brushing away the rebound from 1lex Baena.

The first-half hydration break stunted some of the early tempo but, around the half-hour mark, Pau CubarsD almost connected with a Pedri ball into the box which Costa still had to block with his foot.

Portugal survived further pressure until finally breaking forward in the 37th minute when a deep cross was knocked back into the danger area by Jo3o F9lix to Ronaldo, whose hook goalwards was caught by SimF3n.

In the end, the Sele73o das Quinas were unlucky not to be ahead at HT after a short corner was powered goalwards by Nuno Mendes, with only a deflection off Pedro Porro diverting it onto the crossbar.

Neither side managed a shot on target in the opening quarter-hour of the second period, but Pedri eventually had an effort deflected over after a nice lay-off from Olmo.

Baena then saw a slow shot easily kept out by Costa, who was called into action again to tip a Yamal free-kick over the bar shortly after the second hydration break.

A rare venture forward for the Portuguese - without the injured Mendes after he was forced off due to injury - saw a Vitinha shot deflect to Bruno Fernandes, who subsequently fired it into the side netting.

Nevertheless, Roberto MartDnez’s side were soon under pressure again when RFAben Dias did well to block an Olmo shot destined for the bottom corner.

The match seemed destined to be heading for ET, only for Spain to finally unlock the Portugal defence in the first minute of added time. Substitute Mikel Merino timed his run to perfection to latch onto Ferran Torres’ through ball and slotted it coolly past Costa.

Match stats

This is the second time Spain have beaten Portugal 1-0 in a WC round of 16 tie, also doing so on their way to the final in 2010, and after Bernardo Silva headed over in the final seconds, Ronaldo’s WC career surely ends with no more than one semi-final appearance to show for it.

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