{"id":1438,"date":"2026-07-06T21:23:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T21:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/?p=1438"},"modified":"2026-07-06T21:23:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T21:23:03","slug":"mikel-merinos-late-goal-sends-spain-to-quarterfinals-and-ends-cristiano-ronaldos-world-cup-career-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/?p=1438","title":{"rendered":"Mikel Merino\u2019s late goal sends Spain to quarterfinals and ends Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s World Cup career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spain’s Pedro Porro, top, congrats Spain’s Mikel Merino, right, after scored during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Portugal and Spain in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Julio Cortez)<\/small><\/p>\n

2026-07-06T21:09:11Z<\/p>\n

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 Mikel Merino scored seconds into second-half stoppage time, and Spain beat Portugal 1-0 on Monday to end the World Cup career of superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.<\/p>\n

Merino had just been knocked down, and a foul was called. While a Portugal player argued, Merino played the ball back in, ran toward the goal and put a shot past goalkeeper Diogo Costa after taking a pass from Ferran Torres.<\/p>\n

Spain advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time since winning its only World Cup title in 2010 in South Africa. Spain will play either the United States or Belgium on Friday in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo was trying to get Portugal to the quarterfinals in a second consecutive tournament for the first time. Instead, the career on soccer\u2019s biggest stage is over for the all-time leader in international goals.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/a><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spain’s Pedro Porro, top, congrats Spain’s Mikel Merino, right, after scored during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Portugal and Spain in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Julio Cortez) 2026-07-06T21:09:11Z ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 Mikel Merino scored seconds into second-half stoppage time, and Spain beat Portugal 1-0 on… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}