INGLEWOOD, Calif. – With 18-year-old FC Barcelona star Yamine Lamal fully fit and eight goals in their last three games, the Spanish men’s national team is fully armed and operational for a run at the World Cup title.
With deft control and an intrinsic creativity of play, pre-tournament favorite Spain artfully suffocated Austria, 3-0, in the Round of 32 on Thursday at SoFi Stadium. “La Roja” notched its fourth clean sheet of the tournament and didn’t allow a single shot on target from “Das Team.”
Real Sociedad forward Mikel Oyarzabal netted a brace off a pair of assists from Real Madrid wingback Marc Cucurella, and Tottenham Hotspur defender Pedro Porro crashed the penalty area for his first career international goal on a second-half header. Athletic Bilbao keeper Unai Simón set a World Cup record with 519 consecutive minutes without allowing a goal, breaking 1990 record of 517 by Italian keeper Walter Zenga.
Spain, which won its group with wins over Saudi Arabia and Uruguay following a stunning 0-0 draw with Cabo Verde in its opener, will play the winner of Portugal and Croatia in the Round of 16 in Dallas on Monday. The winner of that match slated to face either the United States or Belgium in the quarterfinals back in Los Angeles on July 10.
Spain has faced their Iberian neighbor Portugal twice in the World Cup: a 1-0 win in the 2010 Round of 16 on its way to La Roja’s only World Cup title in South Africa and a 3-3 group stage draw in 2018 against a Cristiano Ronaldo hat trick in Russia.
Spain has never played Croatia in the World Cup.
Despite the defeat, this was a successful World Cup in the scope of Austrian football history.
In their first World Cup appearance since 1998, Austria earned its first World Cup win since 1990 with a 3-1 win over Jordan in their 2026 opener, and Das Team advanced out of the group stage for the first time since 1982. That 1982 tournament was an odd format with two rounds of group play, which marked Wednesday as Austria’s first World Cup knockout round since 1954.
There was barely a moment the ball wasn’t on a Spaniard foot with over 61% of possession in Spain’s favor at one point and 56% by the end. Austria was below 30% for much of the match, but finished with 35%. Spain had an overwhelming advantage in shot attempts (23-5), on-target shots (10-0) with 15 shot attempts in the penalty area to just four for the Austrians. Spain earned nine corner kicks to Austria’s zero.
Yamal made his third straight start for Spain in recovering from a hamstring injury. The 18-year-old has yet to play a full 90 minutes for the national team at this World Cup, but Spain had the luxury of resting him with an 85th-minute substitution against Austria.
Yamal made several forays down his usual right wing, including a handful of colorful plays through the legs of Austrian defenders. In the first half, Yamal picked up the ball on the run and one-on-one with the keeper, he chipped it just beyond the goal. In the second half, he was denied his second goal of the tournament with a save at the right post by Alexander Schlager and a clearance off the goalline by Austrian captain David Alaba.
If not for Schlager, Spain would have totally obliterated Austria.
In the first half, Spain had the ball on a string until Oyarzabal finally broke through in the 36th minute.
Pedri danced through the middle just outside the box and sent it over to Cucurella on the left wing, who fed Oyarzabal back in the center of the box. In one swift motion, Oyarzabal swept it towards the net with his left foot, and the ball found the far corner, 1-0.
Into the second half, Spain continued to work.
Cucurella battled for a ball in the box, and fought it over to Álex Baena on the left side of the box. Porro came from deep to crash the penalty area unmarked, and Baena crossed it directly to Porro’s head for the 2-0 lead in the 66th minute.
With the game well in hand, Spain got out on the run in the 89th minute. Cucurella played a curling ball in behind the Austrian back line, and Oyarzabal chased it down all alone for the deft finish, his second goal of the game and the 3-0 lead.
Spain looked every bit of the pre-tournament favorite it was labelled, and now, La Roja look to book a return trip for a quarterfinal date in Los Angeles against either Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal or Luka Modrić’s Croatia in the Round of 16 on Monday in Dallas.