Mikel Merino scored an injury-time winner as Spain defeated Portugal 1-0 to reach the World Cup quarter-finals on Monday.

The match, held in an air-conditioned Dallas Cowboys stadium packed with 70,649 fans, was not as exciting on paper as it looked on paper.

The match was heading towards extra time. But in the first minute of added time, substitute Ferran Torres made a great pass to Vardan Merino. Merino seized the opportunity and scored to give Spain the victory.

With that, the 41-year-old Ronaldo's last match of his World Cup career ended in a bitter end. Ronaldo, currently playing in Saudi Arabia, had confirmed the day before the match that this would be his last World Cup on the highest stage of football.

Both neighbours entered the match undefeated. However, Portugal did not play very good football, while Spain did not concede a single goal in the entire tournament. Spain, considered one of the title contenders before the tournament began, maintained that record after this match.

Despite being rich in tradition, talent and history, Spain has only won the World Cup once, in 2010. On the other hand, Portugal's best achievement was finishing third in the 1966 World Cup.

Merino broke the deadlock in the first minute of time added on at the AT&T Stadium outside Dallas to send the Spaniards into a last-eight clash against either Belgium in Los Angeles on Friday.