{"id":16259,"date":"2025-10-15T09:12:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T03:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=647520"},"modified":"2025-10-15T09:12:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T03:42:40","slug":"spain-inches-closer-to-the-world-cup-2026-this-is-how-they-can-qualify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/spain-inches-closer-to-the-world-cup-2026-this-is-how-they-can-qualify\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain inches closer to the World Cup 2026; This is how they can qualify"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Spain are close to getting the qualification to World Cup 2026 as they won their last night\u2019s game against Bulgaria by 4-0. Mikel Merino, was yet again the hero of the game as the midfielder can\u2019t stop scoring, be it for club or country. Arsenal\u2019s midfielder scored a brace in the game and the other scorer were Oyarzabal. An own goal was also scored by Bulgaria which summed up their performance in this game.<\/p>\n<p>Spain took another major step toward securing their place at the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a commanding 4-0 victory over Bulgaria last night. The win extended their unbeaten run in the qualifiers and showcased the team\u2019s growing confidence under coach Luis de la Fuente.<\/p>\n<p>Mikel Merino was once again the standout performer, continuing his incredible goal-scoring form for both club and country. The Arsenal midfielder bagged a brace, dictating the tempo in midfield while proving lethal in front of goal.<\/p>\n<p>Mikel Oyarzabal also found the net, adding to Bulgaria\u2019s misery with a well-taken finish. To make matters worse for the visitors, a defensive mix-up led to an own goal, perfectly summing up their disappointing night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spain are close to getting the qualification to World Cup 2026 as they won their last night\u2019s game against Bulgaria\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":36121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4049,3796,709,2811,1967,3649],"class_list":["post-16259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-football","tag-mikel-merino","tag-oyarzabal","tag-spain-football-team","tag-world-cup-qualifiers"],"reading_time":"1 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}