Monday night at the 2026 FIFA World Cup delivered two results that felt bigger than the scoreline. In Seattle, the United States men’s team saw its surprising run through the tournament come to a hard stop. In Dallas, football watched Cristiano Ronaldo play his last World Cup match.
Belgium made light work of the hosts, winning 4-1 to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2018. The game was shaped early, in the ninth minute, when midfielder Nicolas Raskin danced past two USA defenders in midair before whipping in a cross for Charles De Ketelaere to finish. From there, the contest tilted firmly Belgium’s way. Romelu Lukaku, not even starting the match, came off the bench to do what he has done best for Belgium for over a decade: score.
It was his eighth World Cup goal, a new national record, and it made him the first player ever to score as a substitute in four different World Cup matches. For the USA, it was familiar heartbreak. The team has now been knocked out in the Round of 16 in six of its seven appearances at that stage, including each of the last four tournaments. Belgium next face Spain in Los Angeles on 10 July.
The Spanish side arrived in the quarterfinals the hard way, edging out Portugal 1-0 in a tense, tight contest that had one storyline above all others. Cristiano Ronaldo, 41, was playing in his final World Cup match, twenty years and six tournaments after his first appearance in 2006. He did not find the net this time, finishing his World Cup career with 27 matches played, second only to Lionel Messi’s 30. But the reception he received from the crowd at Dallas Stadium suggested the scoreline barely mattered. It was a goodbye earned over two decades at the very top of the game.
Portugal’s goalkeeper Diogo Costa did everything he could to keep the dream alive, producing two outstanding saves in quick succession, first denying Lamine Yamal and then somehow reacting again to keep out Alex Baena’s follow-up effort. But Spain, unbeaten in 35 matches since March 2024, eventually found their moment. It came agonisingly late, in the 91st minute, sealing not just the win but Spain’s first World Cup quarterfinal appearance since they lifted the trophy in 2010.
Belgium and Spain now carry their momentum into a heavyweight quarterfinal clash in Los Angeles, while the USA and Portugal are left to reflect on what could have been, and in Ronaldo’s case, on a career that has quietly, and now completely, written its final World Cup chapter.
