Spain steal late winner, push Ronaldo and Portugal out of World Cup

When Luis de la Fuente introduced Mikel Merino and Fabian Ruiz five minutes before the end, the idea should have been to have potential penalty takers on the pitch. Neither Spain nor Portugal had pushed harder until that point, and never seemed like aiming for anything outlandish in the dying moments before extra time.

It was all about game management, preserving energy, and preventing the other side from nudging ahead. Then again, who is to say no to ingenuity? Spain won a freekick outside the box in the first minute of added time. Merino took a quick one, short and sideways, and pushed forward. Fellow substitute Ferran Torres spotted him with a neat through ball, and Merino poked it past a brilliant Diogo Costa.

Out of nowhere, the round of 16 showdown in the FIFA World Cup, which was slowly heading to extra time, ended 1-0. Spain were through to the quarterfinals, while Portugal and their talisman Cristiano Ronaldo had an unceremonious exit.

The game had been dubbed the clash of generations, between Ronaldo, aiming for glory with his country, and Lamine Yamal, hoping to join the legion of teenage superstars, comprising Pele and Kylian Mbappe.

At full-time, Ronaldo, 41, was isolated and inconsolable. Everyone around him knew he was bowing out of the greatest stage, leaving a sizeable void in his trophy cabinet. A few metres away, Yamal fell to the ground and thanked the heavens. He reached out to the veteran and gave him a tight hug. 

The two superstars had their moments, with Yamal coming closer to scoring when he cut inside early in the first half and tried to find the far corner with a curler. Costa made a terrific save to keep out the Barcelona star.

Ronaldo could have reached a Pedro Neto cross in the second half or beaten Unai Simon at the near post with a stretched-out right leg, but he couldn’t.

The Spanish would claim they deserved to win. They had more shots, more final third entries and dominated almost every other stat. Mikel Oyarzabal, Spain’s leading scorer in the tournament, almost gave them a dream start, but grimaced at his poor finish.

An injury to Nuno Mendes early in the second half curtailed Portugal's aggression on the left side. The PSG man had also hit the bar with a thunderous drive in the first half.

That neither side had any shortage of talent to summon off the bench meant this was not a game lost or won based on team selection. But perhaps Roberto Martinez wasn’t brave enough to remove Ronaldo and plant a more agile, pacy striker up front. He took a risk in Portugal's round of 32 meeting with Croatia by taking off Ronaldo in the 81st minute. The brave decision paid off as young attacker Goncalo Ramos scored a late winner.

Spain will play either Belgium or co-hosts the United States in the quarterfinals in Los Angeles on July 10. Spain won the World Cup in 2010, while Portugal are yet to lift the coveted trophy.