Spain wins 2026 World Cup with late goal against Argentina

S pain became the winner of the FIFA World Cup for the first time in this year, defeating the previous year’s champion, Argentina, with the score of 1-0 on Sunday, July 19, 2026. It was a very exciting and hard-hitting game between the two nations that was played at the MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The goal by Torres in the extended period of play enabled the Spanish team to take away the trophy from Messi, who captained the Argentine team.

In itself, this was a poor final in terms of good-quality football. Both teams came into the MetLife Stadium encounter on their guard against each other, and the result bore witness to that.

The game lacked quality chances for prolonged periods of time, and the game seemed destined to go into extra-time with hardly any moment of good football to write home about. Spain controlled possession and territory but failed to put the ball in the net through the resistance of a good Argentinean defense, which kept the efforts of Spain out thanks to their goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez.

Martínez ended up making 11 saves, thereby setting a new record in World Cup final matches. But there was one moment right before the end of regular playtime that threatened to spoil it all for them. The player from the Chelsea squad, Enzo Fernández, who had already been shown a yellow card for dissent, got another yellow card because of a very reckless foul on Pau Cubarsí, the Spanish youngster. And that meant that now they would have to play ten against eleven.

Fortunately for Argentina, Martínez did come up with a save just in the last seconds of the regular time. He denied Lamine Yamal.

It became easier for Spain to assert its dominance because Argentina found itself a man down.

However, some resilience in their defense helped keep the scores at par until almost the latter stages of the added time.

This game would finally break open with 39 seconds of the start of the second half of the extra time.

Two defending players were coming from his side to press the ball when Yamal made a spectacular play by squaring the ball back to Ferran Torres, who had substituted Mikel Oyarzabal in the 62nd minute.

He then took an incredible shot from 8 yards out that beat a stunned Martínez as Spain scored at 106 minutes in a scoreline of 1-0. After the match, Ferran Torres spoke about the importance of this goal to him. "It is not a personal goal.

It is the goal of the whole country. "We have done what we do best, and Messi couldn’t have stopped us." Yes, for sure, this was a very cathartic moment for Spain, who had endured the pressure for over 100 minutes but not broken down. It is clear that Argentina had one last opportunity to equalize the scores in the match, and that happened within just four minutes to go.

The actual statistics indicated that it was a much more imbalanced game than just a scoreline of 1-0 would indicate.

The final saw Spain end up with 20 shots to Argentina's two, along with a number of expected goals of 1.94 against Argentina's 0.20.

Spain also managed to control 60% of possession in the game overall.

This was clearly a very one-sided final overall, which was merely reflected on the scoreboard after the 106th minute of the game.

Another equally remarkable thing about the team was the fact that Spain managed to concede just a single goal out of all eight games they had to play for them to win the cup – hence making Spain the most defensively strong team by conceding the fewest number of goals in the history of the World Cup tournaments, even though this particular World Cup tournament is being contested in an extended format with 48 teams and hence more games for the champions.

Luis de la Fuente, the Spanish head coach aged 65 years, is the oldest man to win the World Cup for his country.

The defeat is quite a bitter pill to swallow for Argentina, whose objective was to emerge victorious in its fourth consecutive championship tournament.

It should be mentioned that the squad captained by Lionel Scaloni was not far from achieving the impossible, considering their victory in Copa América in 2021 and 2024, and in FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.

Now the streak was cut off in New Jersey, and maybe even the career of Lionel Messi, who had been saying about leaving the international football, too. After the game, Messi left the pitch disappointed while shaking hands with Torres and other members of Spain team that were celebrating their victory.

Despite all the attempts of Lionel Scaloni to change something after making late substitutions, such as taking out from the pitch the winner of the penalty shootout in Qatar Gonzalo Montiel, the team failed to get into rhythm of the game.

It serves to solidify Spain’s dominance in the global game going into the latter half of the decade.

In the aftermath of Spain winning Euro 2024, this current crop of Spaniards – featuring names like Rodri, Pedri, Pau Cubarsí, Lamine Yamal, and Ferran Torres – can now add another World Cup to their laurels, tying their victory with the one they won back in 2010 in another generation of great players. In terms of symbolism, there is more to this victory as it means that, coupled with the victory of the women’s national team in the 2023 World Cup, Spain becomes the first country to hold both the men’s and women’s World Cup trophies simultaneously.