Brazil legend Ronaldo only sees one winner in World Cup final – ‘the game will be easy’ | OneFootball

Brazil legend Ronaldo predicts Spain will ‘easily’ beat Argentina in the World Cup final on Sunday, naming the factors that will steer them to victory in New Jersey.

Spain reached the World Cup final with a completely dominant 2-0 win over France in the semi-final, while Argentina were forced to come from behind to see off England earlier this week.

Despite drawing their opening group game against minnows, Spain have since won six in a row and have only conceded once throughout the whole tournament.

Argentina, meanwhile, have leaned massively on the brilliance of 39-year-old skipper Lionel Messi, who has scored eight goals in seven games and sits two behind Kylian Mbappe in the race for the Golden Boot.

But speaking on his official TikTok account with fellow Brazil 2002 World Cup winner Denilson, Ronaldo was very clear on his opinion on how the 2026 final will play out.

“I think Spain wins and the game will be easy,” Ronaldo said.

“For me, France and Spain have always been the favourites and I always remember the programme before the France – Spain game I said the champion would win that game.

“I think Spain wins easy with football played in an extraordinary way. Their DNA is not just the football played in this World Cup, they have been doing this for a long time, they grew up doing it like this, playing this way.

“I think there’s a lot of [Pep] Guardiola in there to have started this philosophy, it’s at Barcelona in 2006, 2007.”

Argentina a threat, but Spain just too good

While Ronaldo is fully aware of the threat Argentina carry and their never-say-die attitude, he does not feel that will be enough to get them over the line – as it did in the 3-2 win over Egypt and 2-1 triumph over England.

He added: “I think Spain wins easy. I don’t believe Argentina has the strength to become a game of a 1-0, 2-0 because Spain will have possession of the ball all of the time.

“What is still an absolute success for Argentina for this World Cup is the way they turned games on several occasions, Messi, one more time makes one more beautiful story at a World Cup, it’s a team that demonstrates a character, a spirit of overcoming, it’s very beautiful and admirable, we have to learn from it.

“But I think the way Spain play… it’s very automated, the way they play is very automated, it’s what you have to do every time in every phase, no hurry, they play the ball with speed, they run the game, they cool the game with possession.”