Ferran Torres fires Spain past Argentina and into World Cup semifinals

Ferran Torres broke Argentina with an unstoppable finish from inside the area after Spain had a man advantage, pushing the Selección española into the World Cup semifinals. For a country that has spent years searching for another defining knockout-stage moment, the Barcelona forward’s strike carried more than the weight of one match.

The goal arrived with Spain chasing a breakthrough that Sport framed as only the second time in the nation’s history that it had moved beyond the quarterfinals of a World Cup. The only previous occasion came in 2010, when Spain went on to win the title, and that history made Torres’s intervention feel like the end point of a long national wait.

Torres also entered the match carrying a risk that had sharpened the tension around him. Sport noted that he was one booking away from suspension after picking up a yellow card against Portugal, a detail that made every duel and every recovery run matter as Spain tried to keep one of its most direct attackers on the field. For a side built around control, his availability was suddenly as important as his finishing.

When the opening came, Torres did what Spain needed most. With Argentina reduced to 10 men, the FC Barcelona forward found space inside the box and hit a shot Emiliano Martínez, Argentina’s goalkeeper known as Dibu, could not stop. The finish was clean, immediate and decisive, the kind of strike that turns a numerical edge into a result and a national storyline into a milestone.

Martínez remained one of Argentina’s central figures throughout the contest, the same goalkeeper who had become a reference point for the rival and whose reactions under pressure have been closely watched in international football. For Spain, Torres’s goal was not just the moment that settled Argentina. It was the moment that connected a present team to the only Spanish side before it to break through this far, the one that converted a quarterfinal barrier into a World Cup triumph in 2010.