Neighbours Portugal and Spain meet to decide quarter-finals place

By Matt Smith

These two sides have gone head-to-head countless times over the years, with their first meeting dating back to 1921. They’ve locked horns 41 times overall, with 12 of those coming in competitive matches, and Portugal have only beaten Spain six times overall. 

The last time these two sides met was back in June 2025 in the UEFA Nations League final, with Portugal securing the trophy on penalties. 

Team news

There’s unlikely to be too many changes from Roberto Martínez in this game, especially after they defeated Croatia in the previous round. Portugal have a fully fit squad heading into this one, so an unchanged side certainly wouldn’t be a surprise. 

Meanwhile, there are some slight concerns for Spain with Lamine Yamal, Pedro Porro, Dani Olmo and Aymeric Laporte all unable to train fully on Friday. All four should be fit enough for the game, but Spain are likely to be without Nico Williams and Yéremy Pino. 

Portugal scraping through

Barring a 5-0 victory over Uzbekistan in the second game of the group stage, Portugal have been far from convincing in this World Cup. Portugal were held 1-1 by DR Congo in their opening match, before also drawing against Colombia in their third game of the group.

In their first knockout round, Portugal went behind against Croatia in the second half before Cristiano Ronaldo equalised from the penalty spot. It then took a 94th-minute winner for Portugal to scrape through as Gonçalo Ramos completed a dramatic comeback. 

There is no doubt Portugal are going to need to step it up against tougher opposition this time around.

Spain looking unbreakable so far

Spain did struggle in their opening game, failing to beat Cape Verde in a 0-0 draw, but since then they’ve looked unbreakable. Especially defensively, Spain are yet to concede a goal at the World Cup, with only Mexico the other side to manage that up until their exit last night. 

It’s deservedly so that Spain have kept their sheets clean too. They have conceded just 0.9 expected goals in the tournament so far, less than half of Argentina in second. Spain have also looked incredibly impressive going forward too, so Portugal are going to have their work cut out in this one.

Spain’s underrated striker

Lamine Yamal takes a lot of the attention when it comes to Spain, and rightly so, but he’s certainly not been Spain’s shining star in this tournament so far. The young winger was dealing with an injury at the start of the tournament, so it’s understandable that he has not lit up the World Cup just yet. It’s one of his teammates who deserves a lot of the plaudits.

Mikel Oyarzabal has provided five goal contributions in the tournament so far, scoring twice in Spain’s 3-0 victory in the first knockout round. He’s the player Portugal will have to keep an eye on in this game. 

Prediction

Given the performances of these two sides, up to this point, we’re going for a narrow 2-1 victory to Spain.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

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