The graders could not agree. Six outlets published marks for Spain's 2-1 win over Belgium in the World Cup quarter-final, and on some players they sat two or three points apart. On one thing they were unanimous: the best man on the pitch had been on it for barely two minutes.
Rodri holds firm, Cubarsi splits the room
Rodri was the safe pick. ESPN, SI.com and DAZN all landed him between 7.8 and 8, crediting the tempo he set and the way he kept Spain ticking through the middle. Nobody argued.
Pau Cubarsi was the argument. At 19 he is the only genuine kid in a back four that otherwise reads Porro, Laporte and Cucurella, all seasoned internationals, and he drew the widest spread of anyone on the day: 5 at the bottom, 8.4 at the top. He was beaten in the air by Charles De Ketelaere for the equaliser and booked for a needless challenge on Kevin De Bruyne. Then he turned his night around. It was Cubarsi's shot from distance in the 88th minute that Senne Lammens could not hold, and the loose ball ran to Merino. ESPN, Goal.com, Sports Mole and SI.com never did settle on what all that was worth.
Fabian Ruiz got Spain going in the 30th minute, a first-time finish on the rebound after Thibaut Courtois had parried Dani Olmo's effort. Opta's match data notes a deflection off Timothy Castagne on the way through. It was Ruiz's first goal of the tournament, reward for a surprise recall to the XI, and the graders placed him anywhere from 6 to 8.
Yamal dazzles, Merino decides
Lamine Yamal is the puzzle the numbers keep circling. ESPN, Goal.com, SI.com and Sports Mole ranged him from 6 to 7.8: gorgeous to watch, all close control and touches inside the box, but not one clear-cut chance created and another knockout tie gone without his second World Cup goal. On the biggest night, a teenager upstaged him, and it was not the one wearing red.
Merino won the tie roughly two minutes after coming off the bench. Every outlet checked made him the highest-rated player in the match, from 7 at SI.com up to 9 at Yahoo Sports and ESPN. Opta supplied the context: he is the first Spain player to score a substitute winner in consecutive World Cup knockout matches, after his stoppage-time header against Portugal, and the first to score two match-winning goals in the 80th minute or later.
Belgium marked down, and Courtois in tears
Belgium's marks ran cooler, with one grim outlier. Lammens, the 24-year-old Manchester United keeper, came on for the injured Courtois in the 71st minute and spilled Cubarsi's shot straight into Merino's path. ESPN, Yahoo Sports, DAZN and Sports Mole all had him at 4 to 4.5, the lowest score in the game. Opta noted he was Belgium's first non-Courtois goalkeeper at a World Cup since 2002.
Courtois came off worse than any number could capture. He had been steady, marked 5 to 7.6 for his saves before he pulled up. He went down taking a goal kick and waved to the bench. "I took a goal kick and I felt a lot of pain in my quadriceps," he said afterwards, per ESPN. A thigh problem, then, and he left the pitch in tears, in what some reporting framed as possibly his final World Cup appearance.
De Ketelaere was the one Belgian the graders warmed to. His header from Castagne's cross in the 41st minute, rated 7.2 to 8, was his third goal of the tournament after a round-of-16 brace. It also ended Spain's run of six straight World Cup clean sheets and closed Unai Simon's shutout streak at 649 minutes, per Opta.
The rest underwhelmed. Belgium had lost Youri Tielemans in the warm-up; Hans Vanaken came in cold and managed about 6, per Sports Mole. De Bruyne was quiet and booked late (6 to 6.3), Jeremy Doku their likeliest threat on the ball (6 to 6.7). Off the bench, Romelu Lukaku (5.8 to 6) lost his aerial duels and Leandro Trossard (5 to 5.9) created nothing.
What the graders agree on
Six cards, six verdicts, and the honest read is that individual marks swung hard by outlet, so treat any single number with caution. The consensus, where it existed, was narrow and clear: Rodri controlled it, Merino won it, Lammens lost it, and Cubarsi lived somewhere between disaster and match-winner depending on who was holding the pen.
Spain move into the semi-final. The open questions travel with them: whether Yamal can turn all that touch into an end product, and whether Courtois, thigh strapped and eyes red, has kept goal at a World Cup for the last time.
Sources
- ESPN - Spain vs Belgium player ratings
- Goal.com - Spain player ratings vs Belgium
- The Analyst (Opta) - Spain vs Belgium stats
- Sports Mole - Spain 2-1 Belgium player ratings
- DAZN - Spain vs Belgium player ratings
- ESPN - Tielemans warmup injury and Courtois exit
- Sporza (Belgium) - Lammens error match report
- SI.com - Spain player ratings vs Belgium
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