Alex Baena scored the only goal as Spain advanced to the knockout stages of the World Cup as Group H winners following a narrow 1-0 victory over 10-man Uruguay.

Spain's victory also ended Uruguay's campaign at the first hurdle following Cape Verde's goalless draw with Saudi Arabia, with the tournament debutants finishing in second. 

La Roja will now look forward to a clash with the runner-up of Group J on July 2. Austria currently occupy that position ahead of their final match against Algeria. 

A loose pass from Rodrigo Bentancur presented Spain a chance to take the lead inside the opening two minutes, but after Lamine Yamal shifted the ball to Mikel Oyarzabal, his attempted cross towards Mikel Merino was cut out by Sebastian Caceres. 

From there, La Roja struggled to find their groove, with Juan Manuel Sanabria doing brilliantly to keep Yamal quiet in the opening exchanges, and Uruguay did offer a threat at the other end, but Darwin Nunez failed to connect with an ambitious backheel. 

Bentancur then tried his luck from distance, but Spain opened the scoring three minutes before half-time after an error from Fernando Muslera. Marcos Llorente's delivery picked out Baena, who took a touch and saw his shot squirm through the Uruguay goalkeeper's grasp and into the net. 

Muslera was subsequently replaced by Sergio Rochet at half-time as Uruguay made a goalkeeper substitution in a World Cup match for the first time since substitutions were introduced at the tournament in 1970, but Marcelo Bielsa's side continued to struggle.

Spain should have pulled further clear just after the hour but substitute Dani Olmo blazed after being teed up by Yamal, before Mathias Olivera's attempted cross into the penalty area almost caught out Unai Simon at his near post. 

Ferran Torres almost wrapped up the three points four minutes from time, but after skipping past Olivera, he fired his effort against the crossbar. Uruguay's misery was compounded in second-half stoppage time when Agustin Canobbio was shown a straight red card for a high tackle on Pau Cubarsi. 

Spain defence holds firm but another Muslera mistake costs Uruguay

Spain's favourites tag at this year's World Cup owed to their star-studded attack that has been spearheaded by Yamal, but in a match that saw just two shots on target between either side, La Roja's defensive rearguard provided a solid foundation to build on. 

Luis de la Fuente's side have faced just 26 shots across their last four World Cup matches and became only the second team on record (since 1966) to face six or fewer attempts in five consecutive matches at the tournament after Argentina, who did so in their first five games of their title-winning campaign in 2022. 

Spain have also not faced a single shot on target in the first half of their three group stage matches at this year's World Cup, the first team to do so in the tournament.

But in Uruguay's backline, it proved to be a nightmare outing in what could have been Muslera's final game for his country. After coming out of retirement to appear at the tournament, he became the first goalkeeper on record since 1966 to commit three errors leading to goals in a single edition of the World Cup.

In what was an ugly end to proceedings at Estadio Guadalajara, Spain just about did enough to get themselves over the line. They finished with an expected goals (xG) total of 0.86 from their six attempts to Uruguay's tally of 0.2 from their five shots.