{"id":2272,"date":"2026-07-26T00:18:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T23:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=2272"},"modified":"2026-07-26T00:19:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T23:19:00","slug":"spain-edge-argentina-to-win-second-fifa-world-cup-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=2272","title":{"rendered":"Spain Edge Argentina To Win Second FIFA World Cup Title"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Osahenmwindamwen Faith<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spain were crowned FIFA World Cup champions for the second time after Ferran Torres scored a dramatic extra-time winner to secure a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Argentina in the final at MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The European champions dominated much of the contest but were repeatedly denied by Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Mart\u00ednez, who produced a series of outstanding saves to keep his side in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Argentina&#8217;s hopes suffered a major setback late in normal time when midfielder Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez was sent off after receiving a second yellow card for a reckless challenge on Spain defender Pau Cubars\u00ed, forcing the defending champions to play the remainder of the match with 10 men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spain finally found the breakthrough in the 106th minute when substitute Nico Williams headed the ball into the path of Ferran Torres, who fired a powerful close-range effort beyond Mart\u00ednez to spark celebrations among the Spanish supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier in the match, Lamine Yamal and Mikel Oyarzabal tested Mart\u00ednez in the first half, while the Argentine goalkeeper also produced a stunning save from Yamal&#8217;s late free kick to force extra time. Williams later had a goal ruled out before eventually providing the assist for Torres&#8217; decisive strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The final also featured the first-ever FIFA World Cup halftime show, with performances by Madonna, Shakira, Burna Boy, and Justin Bieber, extending the halftime interval to 27 minutes. United States President Donald Trump attended the match after arriving at the stadium by helicopter before kick-off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The victory marks Spain&#8217;s second FIFA World Cup title and their sixth triumph in seven major international tournament finals. For Argentina, the defeat ended their bid to successfully defend the World Cup for the first time since lifting the trophy in 2022, in what is widely expected to be Lionel Messi&#8217;s final international appearance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Osahenmwindamwen Faith Spain were crowned FIFA World Cup champions for the second time after Ferran Torres scored a dramatic extra-time winner to secure a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Argentina in the final at MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, on Sunday. The European champions dominated much of the contest but were repeatedly denied by Argentina goalkeeper [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"iawp_total_views":16,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,14],"tags":[348,600,609,351,310,610],"class_list":["post-2272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-trendingnews","tag-argentina","tag-fifa-wc","tag-fifa26","tag-messi","tag-spain","tag-yamal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2274,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272\/revisions\/2274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}