Spain beat Argentina in extra time to win second World Cup title

Ferran Torres scored in extra time to give Spain a 1-0 victory over Argentina in the 2026 World Cup final at New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The result delivered Spain their second World Cup title and ended Argentina’s bid to defend the crown they won in Qatar in 2022.

The game was billed as a showdown between Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal, but Spain’s discipline, spacing and control turned it into a test of whether Argentina could break a team built to deny chaos. Spain reached the final by beating France 2-0 in the semi-finals, with goals from Mikel Oyarzabal and Pedro Porro, and then carried the same defensive edge into the title match. Across eight games, Spain conceded only once, a run that ended with an unbeaten record in men’s international football.

That record mattered because the final was played as much in the details as in the score. Spain did not chase the moment; they waited for it, then took it in extra time through Torres. Argentina, by contrast, never found the control that had carried them through the 2022 final against France, when Messi’s side drew 3-3 and won 4-2 on penalties. Spain’s performance made the contrast plain: a side that prized structure over spectacle against a champion more comfortable in emotional, high-variance games.

The ending turned uglier after Argentina were reduced to 10 men when Enzo Fernández was sent off. Leandro Paredes then choked Spain’s García after the loss, a flashpoint that underlined how far the reigning champions had fallen from their own standard of control. Spain, meanwhile, closed out the country’s second World Cup trophy and a final that looked less like a single victory than a statement about order, discipline and tactical control at the highest level.