Spain beat Austria 3-0 on Thursday to reach the World Cup last 16. Mikel Oyarzabal scored twice and Pedro Porro once at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Spain have yet to concede a goal at the tournament.
Spain beat Austria 3-0 on Thursday to reach the World Cup last 16. Mikel Oyarzabal scored twice and Pedro Porro once at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Spain have yet to concede a goal at the tournament.
Spain topped Group H by edging Uruguay 1-0 in Guadalajara last week, sealing a place in the knockouts. On Thursday they made short work of the next round, sweeping aside Austria 3-0 to reach the last 16.
Marc Cucurella had a first-half strike ruled out for a foul on goalkeeper Alexander Schlager. Oyarzabal then broke the deadlock in the 36th minute, sweeping in a low cross from Cucurella. Pedro Porro headed Alex Baena's delivery home on 66 minutes for his first international goal, before Oyarzabal converted another Cucurella cross with a minute of normal time left.
Austria offered little in reply. They failed to register a single shot on target.
Luis de la Fuente refused to be carried away, despite calling the display close to flawless. "I have many reasons to be happy today. First because of the victory, we won significantly and the image of the team was fabulous," he said. "But there is still room for improvement."
The 65-year-old cautioned his players against believing they had peaked. "When you get flattered and believe it, you become weaker. Satisfaction can kill you," he said. He singled out Cucurella, who supplied two assists, as "invaluable" and "a top-notch player".
Austria coach Ralf Rangnick's side bowed out with credit at home. President Alexander Van der Bellen wrote on X: "European champions Spain were simply too strong. I understand that you're disappointed, but lads, you gave it your all."
Oyarzabal now has four goals at the tournament, having also scored twice in a 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia. He became the first Spain player since Emilio Butragueno in 1986 to score more than once in a World Cup knockout match.
Unai Simon set a new record of 519 consecutive World Cup minutes without conceding, passing Walter Zenga's mark of 517 from 1990. It was his fifth clean sheet in successive World Cup matches, a run stretching back to Qatar in 2022. Spain have not conceded a World Cup goal since their 2022 defeat by Japan and are unbeaten in 34 matches.
The victory also ended a long drought. Before Thursday, Spain had not won a World Cup knockout tie since lifting the trophy in 2010, having gone out on penalties to Russia in 2018 and Morocco in 2022. Lamine Yamal, 18, was named player of the match without scoring or assisting, drawing defenders and unsettling Austria's shape after shaking off a hamstring problem that hampered him early in the campaign.
Spain face the winner of Portugal against Croatia in the Round of 16. That tie is set for 6 July at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. "The next phase will be increasingly demanding," De la Fuente said. "We have wonderful players, but the only focus is to exceed our own expectations."
