Spain beat Portugal 1-0 in the Round of 16 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Monday, and the goal that did it came in the cruellest possible minute for Cristiano Ronaldo. Substitute Mikel Merino scored in the 91st minute at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, sending Spain through and ending Ronaldo's last World Cup campaign, according to CBS Sports.

For Indian fans, many of whom have followed Ronaldo since his Manchester United days, this was the moment his World Cup story closed. Spain, the reigning European champions, now look like genuine title contenders after edging past a Portugal side built around football's most decorated individual name.

How the winner came together

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente turned to his bench with the game locked at 0-0, bringing on Ferran Torres and Merino in the second half. The move paid off in the first minute of stoppage time: Torres slipped a quick ball into the box, and Merino finished at the near post to break Portuguese hearts, per theScore.

Watch: Mikel Merino’s stoppage-time winner vs Portugal (YouTube)

A crowd of 70,649 at the Dallas Cowboys' home stadium had settled in for extra time until that late intervention. The numbers back up Spain's dominance: they finished with 1.77 expected goals across 15 shots, six on target, against Portugal's 0.60 xG from 10 shots, per data cited by NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. Only Ronaldo's two efforts actually tested Spain's goalkeeper all night.

Ronaldo's World Cup, one last time

This was billed as a generational handover, 41-year-old Ronaldo against 18-year-old Lamine Yamal, and Ronaldo had already written himself into the record books earlier in the tournament. A brace against Uzbekistan in the group stage made him the first player to score in six different World Cup editions, 2006 through 2026, and took him to 10 tournament goals, surpassing Eusebio's Portugal record of nine, according to FIFA.com. TUI covered that record-breaking night in detail in our earlier report on his historic brace.

He added a penalty against Croatia in the Round of 32, a match that TUI also covered as Ronaldo ending his World Cup knockout drought, before this elimination. He finishes the 2026 tournament with three goals in total, per NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth.

At 41, Ronaldo would be 45 when the next World Cup kicks off, co-hosted by Portugal, Spain and Morocco, making Monday's defeat the effective end of his participation at football's biggest stage, CBS Sports noted. He had tears in his eyes as he walked around the pitch afterward, applauding Portuguese fans who had travelled to Dallas, according to CNN.

Ronaldo had already made peace with the possibility before kickoff. "Whatever happens tomorrow, Cristiano will leave with a clear conscience... Not 100%, but 1,000%. Because I've given everything in football," he said, per NBC News. He added, "I don't need it, I have a good life, but it's about passion. I play football because I love it," per CBS Sports.

What it means for Spain

With the win, Spain advance to the quarterfinals to face the winner of the United States versus Belgium Round of 16 match, per CBS Sports. It is the kind of late, resourceful win, built off the bench rather than the starting XI, that title-winning teams tend to produce.

Monday's result was one of several dramatic Round of 16 finishes this week; TUI has the full picture in its roundup of Round of 16 results and the quarterfinal schedule in IST. Spain had already shown their knockout-stage nerve earlier in the tournament, a run TUI tracked in its report on Spain and Portugal's do-or-die group games.

Portugal go home. Spain move on, one win from a semifinal, carrying the momentum of a European title and now a World Cup statement win over Ronaldo's Portugal. The next question is whether that late-game resilience holds up against whoever comes through the USA-Belgium tie.