Spain beat Argentina in extra time to seize victory in World Cup final

Spain beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time on Sunday to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup for the second time and end Lionel Messi’s pursuit of back-to-back titles.

Ferran Torres, a substitute in the 62nd minute, scored the only goal a minute into the second period of extra time. Pedro Porro lifted a long ball to the back post, Nico Williams headed it down and the Barcelona forward struck it in from close range with Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez stranded.

It was Spain’s 20th shot of the match. Argentina had yet to register one and became the first team in World Cup history to fail to record a single shot during the regulation 90 minutes. Enzo Fernandez was sent off in injury time at the end of the 90 minutes, leaving the defending champions with 10 men for extra time.

Torres framed the goal as the country’s rather than the squad’s.

“The goal belonged to 47 million people,” he said.

The win extended Spain’s unbeaten run to 38 matches and delivered a second world title 16 years after the first in 2010. La Roja conceded a single goal across eight matches, the fewest by any World Cup winner, and shut out an Argentina side that had scored 19 goals on the way to the final.

Luis de la Fuente, aged 65, became the oldest manager to win the tournament.

For Messi, it was the end. He finished with eight goals and four assists but was invisible in the final, chased and crowded by a Spain side that gave him almost nothing. The Golden Boot went to France’s Kylian Mbappé, who scored 10.

Messi still leaves the tournament as the first player to start three World Cup finals, and at 39 years and 25 days, the oldest outfield player to start one. Lamine Yamal, aged 19, was the third-youngest, and Spain defender Pau Cubarsí the fourth.

De la Fuente named the same starting 11 that beat France in the semifinal. Lionel Scaloni made three changes from the win over England. He dropped holding midfielder Leandro Paredes and started Nico González, Rodrigo De Paul and Gonzalo Montiel, and his team lost the midfield battle in the first half.

The day before, England and France traded 10 goals in the third-place match. The final was its opposite, cautious from the first whistle.

Spain controlled it from the opening minutes and never let go. High possession, a suffocating press and relentless short passing kept the ball deep in Argentine territory, and the very few times when Spain lost it, they won it straight back.

The pattern was set early. Yamal took a short pass from Dani Olmo in the fifth minute and shot with his left foot from the right of the box. The effort, however, was weak, and Martínez saved. Moments later, Messi ran onto a through ball, only for Spain goalkeeper Unai Simón to rush out and clear.

De la Fuente pushed left back Marc Cucurella high up the pitch, and Argentina dropped deeper. Passes stopped reaching Messi and Julián Álvarez.

Spain kept the same tempo after the interval. Yamal beat his marker down the flank in the 67th minute and crossed for Torres, whose header went straight at Martínez. In the 80th, Cubarsí struck hard from distance, and Martínez pushed it away.

Argentina struggled to cross the halfway line. Scaloni emptied his bench with Giuliano Simeone and Facundo Medina. By the 80th minute, his team had still not registered a shot.

Then came the red. Already booked, midfielder Enzo Fernández lunged into Cubarsí in second-half stoppage time and was shown a second yellow. Yamal curled the resulting free kick toward the far corner in the eighth minute of stoppage time, and Martínez threw himself across to keep it out. It was the most dangerous moment of the 90 minutes.

Extra time followed, as it has in five of the last six finals. Three minutes in, Pedri’s cross brushed Nico Williams’s head, and Martínez saved again. Then came Torres. He put the ball in the net a second time in the 115th minute, but the goal was ruled out for offside.

Argentina finally had a shot in the 116th minute. Late in the second period, it pushed everyone forward and got one more chance through Simeone, who fired over.

Argentina had been chasing the first back-to-back World Cup since Pelé’s Brazil in 1962. Spain, held to a goalless draw by tournament debutants Cape Verde in its opening match, beat France in the semifinal and Argentina in the final to take the title.

Yet despite attempts to frame Argentina as the titans, there was not a single moment in Sunday’s final when it was not Spain’s game. Argentina, on what was likely Messi’s swansong, barely showed up.

Yamal now holds a European Championship medal and a World Cup medal, both won before his 20th birthday. He and Messi were meeting for the first time, 19 years after Messi, then a 20-year-old at Barcelona, helped bathe the six-month-old Yamal during a charity calendar shoot for Unicef at Camp Nou.

It was the 104th and last match of the tournament.

The final was staged as much as an entertainment event as it was a match. BTS performed “Dynamite” (2020) at halftime alongside Madonna, who appeared with the Brazilian greats Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, as well as Shakira and Justin Bieber.

Before kickoff, Robbie Williams, Laura Pausini and Nicole Scherzinger performed the tournament anthem “Desire.” Korean actor Jung Ho-yeon of “Squid Game” (2021-25) and Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz, both Louis Vuitton ambassadors, carried out the trophy in a Louis Vuitton trunk. Tom Cruise addressed the crowd from the pitch.

U.S. President Donald Trump watched from the stands beside FIFA President Gianni Infantino and handled the trophy. Mike Tyson, Matt Damon and Zinedine Zidane were among the other guests.

BY PARK LIN [[email protected]]