Uruguay lost to Spain and crashed out of the 2026 World Cup in the group stage.
The Celeste’s loss to La Roja means they failed to advance to the knockout stages despite sharing a group with Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia.
And yet, this one felt much more like a game that Uruguay lost than one that Spain won. It was the South Americans’ actions that mostly defined the score on both ends.
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How did Uruguay lose to Spain?
Fernando Muslera at it again
Where else to begin than with the man who swung the game. Marcelo Bielsa brought Fernando Muslera back from international football retirement in the March friendlies. The 40-year-old goalkeeper’s previous call-up to the national team had been in the 2022 World Cup, but he started the 2026 edition as a starter.
And he made sure to leave his mark in every single match – just in a negative way. He is the only player in the tournament to make an error that led to an opposition goal in each of the group stage games. And the one against Spain ended up eliminating his side.
Not only that, but it had an immense effect on the rest of the match. Had he not made that mistake, Uruguay wouldn’t have had to open up as much as they did in the second half. And even then, they managed to hold on and give themselves a chance until the end by keeping the deficit at one goal.
Only Iraq (5) and Tunisia (6) have collectively made more goal-leading errors than La Celeste’s four. It’s their Achilles heel and it was their demise once more.
Uruguay’s well-executed defensive game plan
Of course, Uruguay didn’t deserve to win against Spain. But, apart from Muslera’s error, they mostly managed to limit their opponent and deny chances.
Bielsa’s men neutralised Luis de la Fuente’s 2-3-5 in-possession with what was often a six-man defensive line. One of the wingers (Agustin Canobbio and Maxi Araujo) acted as a wing-back while Manuel Ugarte tucked in as a third centre-back.
Uruguay won a whopping 64% of the ground duels in the first half, as opposed to Spain’s 36%. Their full-pitch man-marking worked wonders apart from the one time they saw their men beat to the ball. First it was Canobbio who arrived late for a challenge on the left wing and former Manchester United right-back Guillermo Varela who saw Alex Baena get enough separation to fire and score.
La Celeste’s high-energy and relentless defensive approach was also their only attacking weapon. They forced 18 high turnovers from Spain – the sixth most of any team in a game this World Cup.
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They even had a clear-cut goalscoring opportunity. However, as Premier League fans grew accustomed to seeing, Darwin Nunez failed to even get the shot off.
Other than that, though, they severely lacked attacking talent to finish their dangerous possessions or even create them themselves in the first place.
Spain’s poor performance
Spain had little motivation for the game after guaranteeing top spot in Group H on matchday 2. And it really showed tonight.
There was a clear lack of movement from their front line, who accepted Uruguay’s man-marking way too easily. Lamine Yamal had glimpses trying to lose his man with off-ball body feints, but few and far between.
De la Fuente’s attacking shape saw midfielders Pedri and Mikel Merino way too high up the pitch with Rodri alone at the base. Merino’s attempts of infiltrating the box were precisely what allowed La Celeste to form their six-man defensive line with Ugarte on him all the time.
Uruguay obviously had no problem removing the game from the central corridor in his own third and Spain failed to find a way to revert that.
Outside of Rodri, and centre-back duo Aymeric Laport and Pau Cubarsi, they had basically no dangerous actions down the middle.
This problem was even more glaring when De la Fuente brought his whole team to the attacking half. It made it easier for Uruguay to shut down all spaces and deny access to their box. But whenever they started possessions deeper, the South-Americans would follow and concede gaps between the lines that could have helped the current European champions to advance more cleanly.
When Bielsa went all in during the second half and those spaces appeared more often, Spain simply failed to capitalise. They had great chances with Dani Olmo and Ferran Torres but neither of them seemed to have enough focus to put them away.
La Roja ended the World Cup group stage unbeaten and with zero goals conceded, looking safe at the back due to their possession-heavy and patient approach.
And it’s hard to judge them off the Uruguay game because they already had top-spot locked up. And also the Cape Verde game due to the lack of available wingers. We will have to wait and see if they can replicate their great performance against Saudi Arabia to know which one is the ‘real’ Spain.
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