Nevertheless, it was Spain that struck first. On the half-hour mark, Pedro Porro played a sharp one-two with Lamine Yamal and then skilfully cut it past Dani Olmo from near the byline.
Olmo’s shot was deflected by Thibaut Courtois, but fell to Ruiz, who fired it into the goal.
Suddenly it was all of Spain. He pinged passes around the Belgian half as if this World Cup quarter-final was a training exercise, staged for an A-list crowd of Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz and Noel Gallagher.
But Belgium were not fazed by a stunning late comeback from 2-0 down to beat Senegal in the round-of-32.