Key events
This is Spain’s story so far. Cape Verde stunned everyone – not for the last time – by holding one of the pre-tournament favourites to an opening draw. Spain righted the ship with an easy victory over Saudi Arabia, before knocking out Uruguay without too much fuss. Spain topped Group H, pretty much as expected after all.
Then against Austria, a display of football worthy of Spain during their imperial phase of the late 2000s, early 2010s. Mikel Oyarzabal passing the ball into the corner, so easy on the eye.
Here’s how Portugal have done so far. They weren’t particularly impressive in Group K, draws with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Colombia sandwiching a five-goal rout of a poor Uzbekistan side. But second place was comfortable enough, and Cristiano Ronaldo ended a 10-game sequence of failing to score an international goal, so enough positive boxes were ticked.
Then came the 2-1 thriller with Croatia. The Croats came on strong at the end, yet it was Portugal who got the late winner. Throw in some high-stakes VAR drama at both ends, and four disallowed goals, and it was one of the games of the tournament, unquestionably.
Reacquaint yourself with tonight’s teams. Here’s how it all looked at the start.
Preamble
The first time Spain played Portugal in a competitive fixture, they beat their Iberian neighbours 9-0. Given that happened in 1934, it’s not that instructive a result, other than a harbinger of Spanish dominance over the long haul: Spain lead by 17 wins to six, or five to one in competitive fixtures. But Portugal won the most recent meaningful showdown, the 2025 Nations League final on penalties, having twice come from behind. So history can teach us everything, or the sum total of nothing, depending on how much weight you attach to it.
There’s probably more useful data in the here and now. Spain started slowly at this World Cup, though that opening draw with Cape Verde doesn’t look so poor in retrospect. But they’re picking up speed, and dazzled in their last match, passing Austria to death. Portugal by contrast haven’t really got going at all: the old trooper Cristiano Ronaldo is weighing them down, some will argue, and yet he’s scored three very useful goals to this point. People on both sides of the argument may as well make peace with it, because it is what it is.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying: Spain go into this match as favourites, when taking both history and current form into the equation … and yet Portugal have that recent Nations League win as succour, and it’s not as though they’re not jam-packed with talent themselves. Throw in the potential swansong for the aforementioned Ronaldo, and this has the makings of a thriller. Excitement and fun, please! Kick-off in Dallas is at 2pm local, 3pm EDT, 8pm BST and 5am AEST. It’s on!
