Spain beat Argentina to win World Cup final, Ferran Torres scores winner

Ferran Torres scored the only goal as Spain beat Argentina 1-0 in the World Cup final, sealing Spain’s second world title and leaving Neil Johnston’s player ratings to focus on the moments that mattered most. The match ended with Spain lifting the trophy after a tight contest in which one decisive finish and a disciplinary flashpoint shaped the outcome.

Torres provided the cleanest difference between the sides. His winner turned a final that stayed close on the scoreboard into a Spanish victory, and it was the sort of intervention BBC Sport’s ratings pages are built to capture, with readers invited to score both teams’ players out of 10 before the average ratings are posted later on the page. In a final decided by a single goal, Torres did the one thing that counted most.

Spain’s edge was not built only on attack. BBC Sport’s live blog noted a second yellow-card incident, a moment that underlined how fine the margins were as Argentina tried to keep the game alive. In a final where chances were scarce, discipline mattered as much as finishing, and the card incident added pressure at a point when Argentina needed control rather than disruption.

Johnston’s ratings piece sits in a familiar BBC Sport framework that asks readers to judge performances alongside the reporter’s own assessments. That approach has become especially pointed in World Cup finals, where individual displays are weighed against the scale of the occasion. BBC Sport used the same format after Argentina’s 2022 final against France, a match that finished 3-3 after extra time before Argentina won 4-2 on penalties. On that night, Alexis Mac Allister was rated man of the match, and Argentina’s victory delivered a third World Cup title, their first since 1986.

This final produced a different kind of verdict. Spain needed only one clear scoring moment, and Torres supplied it. Argentina were left to chase a response that never arrived, and the trophy went to a Spain side that handled the decisive passages with greater clarity.