{"id":5500,"date":"2026-07-11T14:55:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T14:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=5500"},"modified":"2026-07-11T14:55:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T14:55:44","slug":"spain-defeat-belgium-2-1-to-reach-fifa-world-cup-2026-semi-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=5500","title":{"rendered":"Spain Defeat Belgium 2-1 to Reach FIFA World Cup 2026 Semi-Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>LOS ANGELES:<\/strong> Spain booked their place in the <strong>semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup 2026<\/strong> after securing a <strong>2-1 victory over Belgium<\/strong> in the tournament&#8217;s second quarter-final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The match, played in <strong>Los Angeles<\/strong>, saw the former world champions overcome a resilient Belgian side with a late winning goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spain opened the scoring in the <strong>30th minute<\/strong> when <strong>Fabi\u00e1n<\/strong> found the back of the net, giving his team a deserved first-half lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Belgium responded before the break through <strong>Charles De Ketelaere<\/strong>, who equalized in the <strong>41st minute<\/strong> to send the teams into halftime level at <strong>1-1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The goal was particularly significant as it marked the <strong>first goal conceded by Spain<\/strong> during the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the match finely balanced, both sides created opportunities in the second half, but neither could find a breakthrough until the closing stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spain finally regained the lead in the <strong>88th minute<\/strong>, when <strong>Mikel Merino<\/strong> scored the decisive goal to make it <strong>2-1<\/strong>, sealing Spain&#8217;s place in the last four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Belgium pushed forward in search of another equalizer during the remaining minutes, but Spain&#8217;s defense held firm to preserve the narrow advantage until the final whistle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The victory sends Spain into the <strong>World Cup semi-finals<\/strong>, where they will continue their quest for another FIFA World Cup title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spain&#8217;s disciplined performance, combined with Merino&#8217;s late winner, proved enough to eliminate Belgium and keep the former champions on course for further success in the tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES: Spain booked their place in the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup 2026 after securing a 2-1 victory over Belgium in the tournament&#8217;s..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/437819_8174116_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/437819_8174116_updates-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/437819_8174116_updates-1-300x171.jpg",300,171,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/437819_8174116_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/437819_8174116_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/437819_8174116_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/437819_8174116_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?cat=6\" rel=\"category\">Sports<\/a>","tag_info":"Sports","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5502,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5500\/revisions\/5502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}