Spain v Belgium: World Cup 2026 quarter-final – live

Kick-off time: 12pm local/3pm EDT/8pm BST/5am AEST Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Email Billy“Hola. Any word on Williams, is he fit?” asks Shane Cahill.Seems not. He played a half of football altogether in the group stage and hasn’t made it off the bench in the knockouts. Álex Baena has had a good tournament playing on the left in his place and seems to offer Spain a bit more control when in possession. Maybe they’re waiting to unleash Williams against France.Cubarsí in particular has been superb. For all the talk of Lamine Yamal, the kid who eclipses all else, it is the other teenager at the other end that has most impressed. Born in tiny Estanyol, a village with a population of around 200, the son of a carpenter who ran a family business going back four generations, Cubarsí is the second youngest man ever to make his debut for Spain. Lamine Yamal is the first. The day Cubarsí made his Barcelona debut, he and Lamine Yamal were younger than Robert Lewandowski put together.There was something about him that was different from the start. “When I watch him, my heart rate doesn’t change,” Barcelona’s then-coach Xavi Hernández said. De la Fuente had given him his Spain debut and although he decided not to take him to the Euros, judging it a little soon, that calmness is clear here. “It doesn’t seem like he’s 19, the way he takes on responsibility is enviable,” Simón says. Cubarsí has completed 96 of his 449 passes, and not just sideways: 34 of his 71 against Portugal went into the opposition’s half. There were 19 recoveries, 23 defensive actions completed. Only Paolo Maldini reached as many clean sheets so fast. Continue reading...