Lamine Yamal: "If France has to be afraid of anyone, it's us"
After their narrow victory over Belgium, the Spaniards are already looking towards the semi-finals. "You get used to it," says "repeat hero" Merino.
For the second time since 2010, Spain is in a World Cup semi-final.
The "Furia Roja" defeated Belgium 2-1. As was the case against Portugal, the decision came quite late, and as against their Iberian counterparts, Mikel Merino was the decisive man.
The Spaniards played dominantly as usual, but in contrast to previous matches, they were hardly able to create truly dangerous chances.
"Overjoyed" Match-winner
Nevertheless, they took the lead in the 30th minute through Fabian Ruiz, but Belgium equalized shortly after with their first attack through Charles De Ketelaere.
After that, the Iberians continued to press, but Belgium repeatedly prevented them from scoring. Thus, Mikel Merino once again provided the late decision, not even two minutes after his substitution.
"I'm overjoyed, but you slowly get used to it. Again I came on, and again I scored the decisive goal shortly before the end," says the match-winner after the game.
Yamal Shows Fighting Spirit
In the semi-finals, there will now be a repeat of the 2024 European Championship semi-final. Spain had prevailed against France back then and later secured the European Championship title.
Merino says about the next opponent: "Now we have two more games, and then we hope that our dream comes true. We know very well that the whole country is behind us. Against France now, we expect a close match against an absolute top team."
Lamine Yamal shows significantly more fighting spirit: "If France has to be afraid of anyone, it's us. We already knocked them out last time."
"Made One Mistake Too Many"
While Spain continues to fight for their second World Cup title, the tournament is over for Belgium. In what is possibly the "Golden Generation"'s last tournament, with De Bruyne and Lukaku, they miss out on their second semi-final appearance in eight years.
Belgium had quite a bit of bad luck. Shortly before the start of the match, captain Youri Tielemans dropped out due to injury, and during the game, both Thibaut Courtois and Kevin De Bruyne had to be substituted due to injury.
Head coach Rudi Garcia says about the injuries: "That didn't really help us, but the game was open for a long time, and we tried to get to extra time. In the end, however, we made one mistake too many."
