Belgium finally ends Unai Simón’s 650-minute World Cup shutout streak in quarterfinals

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INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Unai Simón’s impenetrable wall finally crumbled at the World Cup.

The Spain goalkeeper had kept a clean sheet for a record 650 minutes — the tournament's longest scoreless streak — before Belgium ended it in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Charles De Ketelaere got in front of Pau Cubarsi to head in Timothy Castagne's cross in the 41st minute, making the score 1-1. Spain won 2-1 to advance to the semifinals next Tuesday against France.

Belgium became the first team to score against La Roja at this year's World Cup, snapping their tournament record of six consecutive clean sheets.

Spain’s streak began with a 0-0 draw in the round of 16 at the last tournament in 2022, when Morocco advanced after a penalty shootout. There was also a surprising scoreless draw against Cape Verde to open group play this year, followed by four consecutive shutout victories to advance to the quarterfinals.

Simón broke the previous record of 517 consecutive scoreless minutes during a 3-0 win over Austria to open the knockout round. Italy goalkeeper Walter Zenga set the previous mark in 1990 with five consecutive clean sheets at his home World Cup.

The 29-year-old Simón’s shutout streak started in 2022 in Qatar when he entered a 2-1 loss to Japan in group play.

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