South Africa midfielder Jayden Adams, who featured in all three of his country’s group matches at the World Cup, has died, a government minister has confirmed. Adams, who played his club football for Pretoria side Mamelodi Sundowns, was an unused substitute as South Africa exited the tournament in a last-32 defeat to co-hosts Canada on 28 June.
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Mikel Merino emerged as Spain’s hero yet again as the substitute scored in the 88th minute to stun Belgium and book his side’s place in the World Cup semi-finals. Having come off the bench to score a 91st-minute winner against Portugal in the last 16, the Arsenal midfielder stepped up with another late strike to decide a closely contested quarter-final tie in Los Angeles.
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Kylian Mbappe scored his eighth goal of this World Cup to make up for an earlier missed penalty as France proved too good for Morocco and moved into the semi-finals. Mbappe won the first-half penalty when he was fouled by Manchester United defender Noussair Mazraoui, but his poorly hit spot-kick was comfortably saved by Yassine Bounou. The Real Madrid striker made amends in the 60th minute with a superb curling effort from just inside the penalty area to give France a deserved lead. Ballon d’Or holder Ousmane Dembele doubled France’s advantage six minutes later
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Ruben Vargas struck the winning spot-kick as Switzerland beat Colombia 4-3 in a penalty shoot-out to reach the World Cup quarter-finals after a goalless 120 minutes in Vancouver. Sevilla winger Vargas held his nerve after a cagey encounter of few goalscoring chances at the Vancouver Stadium and Switzerland will next face defending champions Argentina on Sunday in Kansas.
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Argentina survived another almighty scare before delivering a scarcely believable second-half comeback to break Egypt hearts and reach the quarter-finals of the 2026 World Cup. The reigning world champions – sent to extra time by Cape Verde in the last round – had looked set for a shock exit against the Pharaohs, who led 2-0 thanks to goals from Yasser Ibrahim and Mostafa Zico. But Cristian Romero halved the deficit 11 minutes from time before Lionel Messi equalised five minutes later and set up a nail-biting finish.
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