Story audio is generated using AI<\/p>\n
Spain faced plenty of scrutiny and criticism after a disappointing start to their 2026 Fifa World Cup campaign, but after a resounding win over Saudi Arabia on Sunday, manager Luis de la Fuente said people were crazy to question his side.<\/p>\n
A lethargic scoreless draw with Cape Verde led to doubts over Spain\u2019s ability to go all the way at the tournament, but a 4-0 victory, inspired by the return of Lamine Yamal to the starting lineup, has restored faith.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s crazy to question this team,\u201d the manager said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been unbeaten for 33 consecutive games. You can have better days, worse days and normal days, but questioning and doubting this generation of very young footballers with a bright future, I think it\u2019s unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n
De la Fuente said on Saturday his players had been motivated by the critics, and he reiterated that point after the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody enjoys receiving criticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir pride was hurt, of course, because this is not a reality. We can do even better than this, as we\u2019ve shown on other occasions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose remarks they hear, of course, sometimes make them react. That\u2019s good because it\u2019s a very committed, dedicated team with amazing quality.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are great professionals. But there are things I wouldn\u2019t like to listen to. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t listen to any programme, for example, and that\u2019s why I try to stay positive and isolate myself from all that noise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much was made of Mikel Oyarzabal\u2019s unhappy record of failing to touch the ball in the opening half hour against Cape Verde, but the Spanish striker provided an assist and scored twice in the first half against Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
Oyarzabal became the second player to have three goal involvements in the opening 25 minutes of a World Cup game since records began in 1966, after Hungary\u2019s Laszlo Fazekas against El Salvador in 1982.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who know about football value him greatly,\u201d De la Fuente said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, there are people who think he doesn\u2019t have such a big impact. The impact Mikel has on the team is massive, probably bigger than any other player could have in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m convinced he\u2019s a footballer who can really make history in Spanish football. His numbers are crazy. So I celebrate his performance, and hopefully we will be able to value him properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spain have four points in Group H, and Saudi Arabia are on one after two games each. Cape Verde and Uruguay, both with one point, drew later on Sunday. Spain\u2019s final group game is against Uruguay on Friday.<\/p>\n
Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Story audio is generated using AI Spain faced plenty of scrutiny and criticism after a disappointing start to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[938,4888,17,14788,12071],"class_list":["post-44324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-lamine-yamal","tag-luis-de-la-fuente","tag-spain","tag-spain-vs-saudi-arabia","tag-spain-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}