Portugal vs Spain Live Updates, FIFA World Cup 2026: Ronaldo’s last World Cup campaign ends with 1-0 defeat to ESP in RO16
Portugal vs Spain World Cup 2026 Match Today Live Score Result: There was no fairytale ending for Cristiano Ronaldo in the World Cup stage as his last ever campaign ended at the hands of Spain in the Round of 16 in Dallas on Monday night. Mikel Merino was the lone goal scorer of the match as he struck in the 90+1 minute to help Spain win 1-0 and advance to the quarterfinal.
Spain got the better chances but failed to breach the Portuguese resistance as the two sides went into drinks break at 0-0. In a rather subdued half in which chances came at a premium, both Spain and Portugal went into half time at 0-0 in Dallas. The closest any side came to a goal was when Nuno Mendes’ deflected shot rattled the cross bar with both teams struggling to create much.
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Yamal won’t have fond memories of facing Portugal, having being defeated by them last year UEFA Nation’s League final on penalties. In World Cups, this is the first time these two sides are meeting since the 2018 edition in Russia where Ronaldo singlehandedly took the game away from Spain with a hattrick in what eventually turned out to be a 3-3 draw.
The latest edition of the Iberian derby also promises to be a firecracker with both teams studded to the brim with megastars in all positions, especially each team’s stacked midfields which boasts the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Vitinha, Joao Neves as well as Pedri, Rodri and Dani Olmo to just name a few.
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It’s tempting to pin the encounter as a clash of eras, of generations, a marker to measure how football has changed between Ronaldo’s first World Cup in 2006 and Yamal’s in 2026. But look closer, and you find two similar personalities when they were 18. (AP)
In Spain vs Portugal, a star racing future vs a superstar chasing past
All his life, Lionel Messi’s shadow has loomed over Lamine Yamal. He was just an infant when a photographer arranged a shoot wherein Messi was bathing Yamal. Years later, when he stepped into Barcelona’s La Masia Academy, he was Messi’s blessed inheritor, the wunderkind beyond his years. Every record he broke in the league was once the Argentine’s.
But in the wee hours of Tuesday in India, when Spain takes on Portugal in a World Cup knockout game, the silhouette behind Yamal will not be that of Messi. It will be of Messi’s grand rival, another great, and a voluminous record-setter in league and world football: Cristiano Ronaldo. (READ MORE)