Kevin De Bruyne.<\/a> The 35-year-old Napoli playmaker was deliberately rested for the USA rout as part of squad management, and all signs point to him starting against Spain. His ability to unlock a low block with a single pass makes him arguably the single most important individual in this fixture \u2014 Spain\u2019s defense has been excellent against structured buildup play, but De Bruyne specializes in breaking lines against the run of play, which is a different kind of problem entirely.<\/p>\nBelgium do have one significant absence to manage: Amadou Onana, who suffered a torn ACL against the USA and will take no further part in the tournament, a blow to their midfield engine room.<\/p>\n
For Spain, the news is more settled. Alex Baena is expected to continue in the wide role that has become a fixture of their knockout run, and the XI that beat Portugal is likely to remain largely unchanged. Lamine Yamal, who made his senior World Cup debut and scored in the group stage, has not looked entirely at his sharpest this summer due to niggling fitness issues, but his sheer output for the national team \u2014 18 goal involvements in just 30 caps \u2014 means he remains the single biggest x-factor Spain can call upon.<\/p>\n
Head-to-Head and History<\/h2>\n
The two sides have met twice previously at World Cups. Belgium eliminated Spain via penalty shootout in the 1986 quarterfinal after a 1-1 draw, while Spain gained revenge with a 2-1 win in the 1990 group stage. Their most recent competitive meeting of any kind was a 2016 friendly won 2-0 by Spain. History offers little in the way of a clear trend, but it does add an extra layer of narrative to what is already the most evenly-matched-on-paper quarterfinal of the round.<\/p>\n
Tactical Breakdown<\/h2>\n
This fixture pits Spain\u2019s suffocating possession game against a Belgium side now playing with real attacking freedom. Spain will look to dominate the ball through Rodri and Pedri, patiently working openings through Yamal and Baena on the flanks, and trusting their defensive structure to see out spells of Belgian pressure. The concern for De la Fuente is that Spain\u2019s chance creation, while efficient, has not been prolific \u2014 they have needed late goals and narrow scorelines to get through their last two knockout matches.<\/p>\n
Belgium, by contrast, will likely sit slightly deeper without the ball and look to spring quickly through De Bruyne\u2019s passing range and the movement of De Ketelaere and Trossard in behind. With Lukaku available as an impact substitute, Garcia has a genuine plan B if the game is still level after an hour. The absence of Onana, though, does weaken Belgium\u2019s ability to control central midfield for long periods, which plays into Spain\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n
Prediction<\/h2>\n
Spain deserve to go into this as favorites. Their defensive record is historic for a World Cup knockout run, their control of matches through midfield has been consistent, and they have shown in the last two rounds that they can find a way to win even when not at their fluent best. But Belgium, with De Bruyne back and an attack that has scored nine goals across their last two knockout matches, represent the most dangerous test Spain have faced so far in this tournament.<\/p>\n
Expect this one to be tighter than Spain\u2019s other knockout wins, with Belgium likely to be the side that finally breaks their remarkable clean-sheet run. Even so, the depth of talent in the Spanish squad and their composure in tight matches should be enough to get them over the line. Spain to win, both teams to score<\/strong> looks the most balanced read on this quarterfinal, with La Roja advancing to face the winner of France vs Morocco in the semifinals.<\/p>\nKick-off:<\/strong> 3:00 PM ET \/ 8:00 PM CET, Friday, July 10, 2026. Venue:<\/strong> SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, California. Next round:<\/strong> Winner faces France or Morocco in the semifinal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday, July 10, 2026 | SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, California | Kick-off: 3:00 PM ET \/ 8:00 PM CET A place in the World Cup semifinals is on the line as Spain and Belgium collide in the second quarterfinal of the 2026 tournament. It is a rematch four decades in the making \u2014 the two nations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2496,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[146,30],"tags":[255],"class_list":["post-2495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","category-sport","tag-spain-vs-belgium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surepredictz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surepredictz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surepredictz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surepredictz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surepredictz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/surepredictz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2497,"href":"https:\/\/surepredictz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions\/2497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surepredictz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surepredictz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surepredictz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surepredictz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}