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Spain broke a World Cup record with its sixth consecutive clean sheet and goalkeeper Unai Simon extended his record shutout streak to 609 minutes after a 1-0 win over Portugal on Monday.
Spain broke its tie with Italy (1990) and Switzerland (2006-10) for the most consecutive World Cup matches not allowing a goal. Spain’s 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 draw against Cape Verde to open group play in this tournament followed by four consecutive shutout victories to advance to the quarterfinals.
Simón surpassed the previous record of 517 consecutive scoreless minutes during a 3-0 blanking of Austria 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.
Simón'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 — Austria had no shots on target — and on Monday in Arlington Simón had to make two saves in the first half against Portugal, both on shots by Cristiano Ronaldo.
The second of those saves was an impressive diving stop, when he was still in mid air after reaching back to grab the ball with both hands. Ronaldo took that shot after teammate Jose Sa's header went off the shoulder of the 29-year-old Athletic Bilbao keeper.
Reporting by the Associated Press.
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