ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) 鈥� Spain broke a with its sixth consecutive clean sheet and goalkeeper Unai Sim贸n extended his record shutout streak to 609 minutes in Monday’s .
Spain broke a tie with Italy (1990) and Switzerland (2006-10) for the most consecutive World Cup matches without allowing a goal. Spain鈥檚 streak began with a 0-0 draw in the round of 16 in 2022, when Morocco advanced after a penalty shootout.
There was also a surprising scoreless to open group play in this tournament, followed by four consecutive shutout victories to advance to the quarterfinals.
of 517 consecutive scoreless minutes during a to open the knockout round Thursday. Famed Italy goalkeeper Walter Zenga set the standard in 1990 with five consecutive clean sheets in his home World Cup.
Sim贸n’s shutout streak started in 2022 in Qatar during a 2-1 loss to Japan to wrap up group play.
He came into the Portugal game having made only four saves in this World Cup 鈥� Austria had no shots on target 鈥� and on Monday in at the home of the Dallas Cowboys, Sim贸n had to make two saves in the first half against Portugal, both on shots by .
The second of those saves was an , when he was still in midair after reaching back to grab the ball with both hands. Ronaldo took that shot after teammate Jo茫o F茅lix’s header went off the shoulder of the 29-year-old Athletic Bilbao keeper.
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