The group stage is something you have to do but the World Cup starts here, Lamine Yamal had insisted, and down on the Pacific that was how it played out. It wasn’t that Spain defeated Austria to reach the last 16 where they will face Portugal or Croatia, their first victory at the knockout stage since they were champions back in 2010; it was that on an enjoyable sunny afternoon they were Spain again. Two goals from Mikel Oyarzabal and another from Pedro Porro completed a 3-0 win that was as recognisably theirs as their coach had requested.
For the fourth consecutive game Spain kept a clean sheet, Unai Simón breaking Iker Casillas’s record and Pau Cubarsí and Aymeric Laporte confirming their status as the centre-back pair of the tournament so far, but what really stood out was what was happening everywhere else. A little flat until now, that opening quarter against Saudi Arabia apart, here they flew and the ball did too. Intense, incisive, and ultimately entirely dominant. A lot of fun too, right from the start. And if Austria played their part then, by the time Oyarzabal added the third, this belonged only to Spain. What had looked like being a game had ended up belonging only to them.
A nice little battle, Konrad Laimer versus Lamine Yamal, began inside the first minute and it suggested that this was going to be fun, and not entirely in one direction. If the Austria full-back was entrusted with stopping the Spain winger, his intention was to do more. The first time Lamine Yamal got up and running at them, it actually started with Laimer and Marcel Sabitzer flying up the left wing only for the move to break down on the edge of the box and for the selección to come flying back at them. At the end of that run, Lamine Yamal had his first shot. It was easily saved by Alexander Schlager but, 59 seconds in, it felt like a statement.
Lamine Yamal would nutmeg Laimer not long after but Laimer recovered to challenge, which he did often. He would also nudge Lamine Yamal over when he escaped into the area. And when he got the ball, he looked forward. Austria wanted their say too. Another direct, incisive dash up the wing – the right this time – needed Pau Cubarsí to be alert to clear. Luis de la Fuente had warned that Austria would be aggressive and on the front foot; what he didn’t say was that suited his team. Spain enjoyed having the space to play, moving the ball faster, stretching the pitch and taking control.
The chances came. Dani Olmo’s first, on the volley was accidentally blocked by Oyarzabal and Aymeric Laporte headed over although the best opportunity in the opening quarter came at the other end, when Laimer was able to step up again. Sabitzer’s lovely inswinging cross dropped behind Cubarsi and only just escaped Michael Gregoritsch.
Spain, though, came back from the commercial break – which was booed again – and turned the screw. Stefan Posch had to be extremely sharp, flying across, as Lamine Yamal dashed into the area. And from the corner, Spain scored, Marc Cucurella smashing in after Schlager could not punch clear. The referee, though, ruled it out because Cubarsí had got a little too close to the keeper as the ball dropped under the bar. The decision was baffling, Cubarsí penalised for the terrible crime of having the goalkeeper reach over him, but Spain kept coming. A wonderful run from Lamine Yamal all the way to the byline ending with Schlager pushing away and then make a superb save as Oyarzabal made space to fire off a low shot by the far post. But Spain did get through, Pedri playing the ball out to Cucurella whose low delivery was turned in, first time and without fuss, by Oyarzabal.
Austria accelerated again, but if Spain found themselves opened up a bit they responded with a series of recoveries that spoke to their defensive commitment too. First Pedro Porro came rushing to put out a potential fire, then Rodri tidied up and next it was Olmo hurrying back. When Laimer then tried to wriggle through inside the area, Porro and Olmo stepped across to close the gap and set Spain away once more. That dash led to an extraordinary free-kick from which Baena hit the bar and when the ball came down, via Cubarsí, Lamine Yamal seemed sure to score at the far post only for Schlager to make another save.
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Spain came back out and did it all over again, Austria’s ambition now more about seeing out the storm, and escaping when they could – even if the one time they did, before the hour, they might have scored. Another gorgeous ball from Sabitzer found Sasa Kalajdzic, the hero whose 96th-minute goal had brought them to this game and had only been on the pitch a minute. Leaping by the six-yard box, his header went over. Spain had racked up 17 attempts already but with this, Austria’s third, it might have been level.
And then it was gone. A long, sharp move broke down when Olmo’s effort was blocked but it was resuscitated, the ball recovered and fed to Álex Baena who pulled back for Porro to come thundering in to finish with a header. As a contest, it was done, but there was more fun to be had, Oyarzabal completing a lovely move that offered a portrait of how Spain played, starting with Simón at one end and concluding at the other. There, yet another smooth, perfectly timed pass saw Oyarzabal slip in to score the kind of goal and complete the kind of game that Spain had wanted from the beginning, their World Cup under way.
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