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“El Matador” wrote history in the World Cup
The historic goal ended Spain’s run at the 2026 World Cup in America, Canada and Mexico after nearly 650 minutes.
On Friday, the teams of Spain and Belgium met at the SoFi Stadium In Los Angeles, in the second quarter-final match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
In the 41st minute of the match, Charles De Catellier equalized the score for the Belgian national team with a distinctive header after a pass.
The goal was historic for the Atalanta player, as it made him Belgium’s all-time top scorer in the knockout stages of the World Cup with three goals, level with Romelu Lukaku, according to statistics network Statesfoot.
In the 2026 World Cup, De Catellie also equaled the number of goals scored by his team Atalanta in 31 Italian league matches last season with 3 goals, Opta reports.
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But most importantly, the Belgian player stopped the historic streak of the Spanish national team, which did not miss goals in the World Cup, for about 650 minutes.
Matador got the last goal from the foot of Japan’s O Tanaka in a 2-1 victory over Samurai Warriors in the third round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar on December 1 of the same year.
After that, the Spanish national team played one match, where they drew with Morocco in the final, 0-0, until the penalties, then 5 matches at the 2026 World Cup, 3 of them in the group stage, then the 32nd and 16th finals without conceding a goal.
Spain drew 0-0 with Cape Verde before beating Saudi Arabia 4-0, Uruguay 1-0 in the group stage, then beating Austria 3-0 in the round of 32 and beating Portugal by one goal in the round of 16.
The streak was the longest in World Cup history until Belgium ended it at 649 minutes.
