{"id":816,"date":"2026-07-09T09:43:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/?p=816"},"modified":"2026-07-09T09:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:43:15","slug":"spain-portugal-switzerland-advance-to-world-cup-round-of-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/09\/spain-portugal-switzerland-advance-to-world-cup-round-of-16\/","title":{"rendered":"SPAIN, PORTUGAL, SWITZERLAND ADVANCE TO WORLD CUP ROUND OF 16"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Three more European countries, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland have advanced to the 2026; World Cup Round of 16 following victories in Round of 32 encounters on Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

European champions Spain won a knockout match at the World Cup for the first time in 16 years with a comfortable 3-0 win over Austria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 36 minutes of sustained pressure, Spain scored the first goal when Marc Cucurella’s low cross was swept home from 12 yards by Mikel Oyarzabal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They deservedly doubled their lead in the 66th minute through right-back Pedro Porro and sealed victory when Cucurella and Oyarzabal combined again in the 89th minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain’s win set up a mouthwatering Round of 16 clash with Portugal who defeated Croatia 2-1 in the Round of 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Substitute Goncalo Ramos was the hero for the Portuguese as he grabbed a 94th-minute winner, rising above two Croatian defenders to head in from a superb Rafael Leao cross to win a pulsating match that looked set for extra-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portugal dominated the first half but Croatia performed better in the second period and went ahead when Ivan Perisic rifled a shot into the corner eight minutes after the restart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half-time substitute Matanovic thought he had doubled Croatia’s lead two minutes later with a near-post finish, but the offside flag went up against team-mate Nikola Vlasic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There followed a frantic few minutes during which Leao rattled the crossbar with a curling strike and captain, Cristiano Ronaldo’s dinked finish was ruled out for a marginal offside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But just as it looked like he was about to be replaced, Portugal were awarded a penalty after the video assistant referee spotted a foul on Renato Veiga at a corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ronaldo converted the spot kick to equalide for Portugal in the 68th minute for his first ever goal in knockout stages of the World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it appeared like extra time would be needed, Ramos sparked wild celebrations with his goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was more drama as Josko Gvardiol thought he had rescued Croatia when he bundled home in the 13th minute of stoppage time, but the video assistant referee intervened and the goal was ruled out for offside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replays showed that Igor Matanovic got the slightest of touches on a cross that then fell to Mario Pasalic who was in an offside position before Gvardiol scored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portugal will face Spain in the Round of 16 in Dallas on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere, Switzerland beat Africannside, Algeria 2-0 Friday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breel Embolo gave the Swiss the lead in the 10th minute before Dan Ndoye doubled the advantage one minute into the second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Round of 16, Switzerland will face the winner of the Round of 32 match between Colombia and Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three more European countries, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland have advanced to the 2026; World Cup Round of 16 following victories […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"h5ap_radio_sources":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-sports"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cr7-1.jpg",581,527,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cr7-1.jpg",581,527,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cr7-1.jpg",581,527,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cr7-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cr7-1-300x272.jpg",300,272,true],"large":["https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cr7-1.jpg",581,527,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cr7-1.jpg",581,527,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cr7-1.jpg",581,527,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"kufmtv","author_link":"https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/index.php\/author\/kufmtv\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"News<\/a> Sports<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Three more European countries, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland have advanced to the 2026; World Cup Round of 16 following victories […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819,"href":"https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions\/819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kufmtv.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}