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Unai Simón’s impenetrable wall finally collapsed in the World Cup.
The Spanish goalkeeper had kept a clean sheet for a record 650 minutes, the longest goalless streak in the tournament, before Belgium ended it in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Charles De Ketelaere got ahead of Pau Cubarsi to head in a cross from Timothy Castagne in the 41st minute, making the score 1-1.
Belgium became the first team to score against La Roja in this year’s World Cup, breaking their tournament record of six consecutive clean sheets.
Spain’s streak began with a 0-0 draw in the round of 16 of the final tournament in 2022, when Morocco advanced after a penalty shootout. There was also a surprising goalless draw against Cape Verde to open the group this year, followed by four consecutive goalless wins to advance to the quarterfinals.
Simón broke the previous record of 517 consecutive scoreless minutes during the 3-0 victory over Austria to open the knockout round. Italian goalkeeper Walter Zenga set the previous mark in 1990 with five consecutive clean sheets in his country’s World Cup.
Simón’s shutout streak began in 2022 in Qatar when he came into a 2-1 loss to Japan in the group stage.
The 29-year-old goalkeeper only faced two shots in the first half on Friday.
