{"id":49501,"date":"2026-07-02T23:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T23:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/49501\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T23:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T23:50:12","slug":"spain-routs-austria-continues-to-work-on-world-cup-champion-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/49501\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain routs Austria, continues to work on World Cup champion form"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spain achieved its primary goal at SoFi Stadium on Thursday, defeating Austria 3-0 and advancing to the World Cup<\/a> round of 16 in front of a pro-Spain announced crowd of 70,492.<\/p>\n

The Spaniards extended their unbeaten match streak to 34 games and their win streak over European teams to 35 dating back to 2023. They have yet to concede a goal this tournament, tying the record for most consecutive men\u2019s World Cup clean sheets with five. <\/p>\n

By every metric, Spain controlled the match and won decisively in its best performance of the tournament.<\/p>\n

But Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said his team still has room to improve and has yet to play its best soccer.<\/p>\n

The team favored to win the World Cup before matches kicked off last month is still ramping up and working to championship standards.<\/p>\n

While France\u2019s fearsome foursome led by the electric Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a> has bulldozed opponents, Norway\u2019s Erling Haaland<\/a> is scoring at a rapid pace and Lionel Messi<\/a> is dancing his way to immortality, Spain superstar Lamine Yamal is still waiting to deliver a multi-goal dominant World Cup performance.<\/p>\n

Yamal, an 18-year-old prodigy, showed flashes of his talent and set up his teammates well en route to winning man of the match honors that more than a few Spanish media members questioned. But his efficient teammates carried the scoring load Thursday, with Mikel Oyarzabal scoring two goals and Pedro Porro adding another for La Roja.<\/p>\n

Spain has been managing Yamal\u2019s minutes while he recovers from injury, but Thursday was supposed to be an opportunity to unleash his dominance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we need to keep improving our game, our intensity \u2014 everything \u2014 but obviously we know the quality we have, and we know we\u2019re not afraid of any team,\u201d Yamal said after the match. \u201cWe\u2019re Spain, and we have to prove it on the field, but we believe in ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Spain still advanced with ease and will face the winner of the Portugal-Croatia match to be played later Thursday. Their round of 16 match will be played Monday in Arlington, Texas. On July 10, the winner of that contest will face the winner of Monday\u2019s U.S.-Belgium match at SoFi Stadium.<\/p>\n

Austria coach Ralf Rangnick is convinced Spain, the European champions, easily could become World Cup champions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you watched the game today, you would recognize it is really difficult to play against this opponent,\u201d Rangnick said of Spain. \u201c… I cannot remember any unforced error they made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s de la Fuente shook his head when he heard Rangnick\u2019s praise, saying he was happy for his players and loves his team but saw many areas that could be improved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s much to do,\u201d de la Fuente said, noting the competition will only grow tougher. \u201cThe defense can still be improved. There have been some situations when we lacked high pressure. … Prior to the first hydration break, the team was still trying to evolve.<\/p>\n

\u201d… You need to keep improving all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Spain <\/p>\n

Spain forward Lamine Yamal falls after Austria midfielder Florian Grillitsch kicks the ball away from him during the second half Thursday.<\/p>\n

(Kelvin Kuo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

During its round of 32 match on Thursday, Spain handled Austria\u2019s high press and attacked spaces behind the defense.<\/p>\n

The Spanish team capitalized on its opponent\u2019s defensive misalignments, found depth down the wings and consistently exposed the Austrians\u2019 defensive weaknesses.<\/p>\n

Austria came out quickly looking to pull off an upset, but it ran into a Spain team that was well-organized defensively. The counterattack ended with Yamal firing a shot straight at Austria goalkeeper Alex Schlager one minute into the game.<\/p>\n

The Austrians tried to get behind the Spanish defense, but their attacking creativity was limited and they never managed to turn their promising opportunities into goals. One of Austria\u2019s clearest chances came on a play by Marcel Sabitzer, who sent a cross from the left flank to forward Michael Gregoritsch, who wasn\u2019t fast enough to put a head or foot on the well-placed ball before it sailed out of bounds.<\/p>\n

The pace of the game favored Spain, as Austria took risks on the attack and left spaces open.<\/p>\n

In the 29th minute, Yamal\u2019s corner kick pinballed in the penalty area before falling to Marc Cucurella, who appeared to score. The goal was erased, however, because Spain tackled Austria\u2019s goalkeeper before Cucurella took his shot.<\/p>\n

Yamal was dynamic early and a run into the box nearly resulted in another clear scoring opportunity. Schlager barely had time to react and prevented another Spanish celebration in the 32nd minute.<\/p>\n

Four minutes later, Cucurella sent a pass to Oyarzabal, who was left unmarked because David Alaba had left a large gap between himself and the forward. Oyarzabal connected with the cross and easily scored to give Spain a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n

Spain had two great chances to extend its lead during first-half stoppage time. The first was a long-range shot by \u00c1lex Baena that hit the crossbar; on the rebound, Yamal fired the ball straight into the Austria goalkeeper\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

In the second half, Yamal continued to pressure the Spanish defenders and set up Oyarzabal for a shot caught by the Austrian goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

Rodri\u2019s dribbling opened more space for Spain, allowing him to create a shooting opportunity that grazed the post in the 54th minute.<\/p>\n

Austria was looking to attack more and brought on Sasa Kalajdzic, who responded quickly with a header that sailed over the crossbar.<\/p>\n

Spain responded by scoring a few minutes later.<\/p>\n

In the 66th minute, Baena won the ball back on the left and sent in a cross for Porro, who headed in his team\u2019s second goal. It was Porro\u2019s first goal for Spain during international competition.<\/p>\n

In his final play before being replaced in the 85th minute, Yamal received a pass inside the penalty area and although he struck the ball well to beat the Austrian goalkeeper, another Austrian defender managed to block his shot.<\/p>\n

When it seemed both teams were content with the result, Cucurella once again linked up with Oyarzabal off a deep pass into the center of the penalty area. Oyarzabal got behind two defenders and scored, sealing Spain\u2019s 3-0 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game kind of tells you what you need \u2014 whether the team needs more on offense or more on defense,\u201d Porro said. \u201cIt\u2019s about staying more focused on that, and surely when you\u2019re more confident in what you have to do, you perform better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain achieved its primary goal at SoFi Stadium on Thursday, defeating Austria 3-0 and advancing to the World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11350,192,21753,11766,21754,7980,2928,4690,21755,21757,17,3885,21758,21756,1492],"class_list":["post-49501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-austria","tag-defense","tag-european-team","tag-game","tag-goal","tag-marc-cucurella","tag-match","tag-mikel-oyarzabal","tag-minute","tag-shot","tag-spain","tag-thursday","tag-well-placed-ball","tag-world-cup-champion-form","tag-yamal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49501","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=49501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}