After a mistake at the start
Yamal works magic at goal gala: Spain is back
Updated June 21, 2026 – 8:07 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
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The “Red Fury” got into a frenzy early on against Saudi Arabia and won big. A superstar impresses immediately – and scores straight away.
World Cup co-favorites Spain returned to the tournament with an impressive performance. On the second matchday of Group H, the reigning European champions won 4-0 (3-0) against Saudi Arabia and showed an all-round improvement after the disappointing 0-0 draw at the start of the tournament against Cape Verde.
Superstar Lamine Yamalwho played from the start for the first time, scored to make it 1-0 (10th), Mikel Oyarzabal (21st, 24th) and an own goal from Hassan Al-Tombakti (49th) provided the further goals for a team coached by coach Luis de la Fuente that was at times intoxicated.
That’s how the game went
Before the game, the sports daily “Marca” warned that Spain had already gone 289 minutes without scoring a goal in the World Cup. So in his first World Cup appearance, Yamal scored his first goal in time to avoid filling up the 300 minutes. Oyarzabal broke through on the left side, drove the ball across the penalty area – and Yamal only had to hold out his foot at the back post.
This made Yamal two weeks younger than a certain man Lionel Messi for his first World Cup goal. However, it wasn’t enough for a Spanish record. Barça teammate Gavi, the third youngest goalscorer in World Cup history, was over half a year younger when he scored in 2022 than Yamal is today.
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4:0 | +4 | 4 | ||||
| 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1:1 | 0 | 1 | ||||
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1:5 | -4 | 1 | ||||
| 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0:0 | 0 | 1 |
Spain presented itself completely differently than against Cape Verde. The outside players were looked for just as consistently as deals. True to the motto: If you don’t shoot, you can’t hit. Oyarzabel thought so too, and within three minutes he scored from the crowd after a corner and then after a wonderful combination that made the Saudi defense completely lose track of things.
The Oyarzabal who, after the first game, still symbolized Spain’s harmlessness. The 29-year-old was not allowed a single touch of the ball in the first 30 minutes of the game – according to data provider Opta, this had never happened since recording began in 1966. Today he was close to a hat-trick, but only hit the crossbar after a mistake by Saudi keeper Mohammed Al-Owais (36′).
Already at halftime, de la Fuente took Oyarzabel and Yamal alongside Dani Olmo the decisive player from the field – apparently to protect himself in view of the long tournament. This didn’t harm Spain’s accuracy, especially since the opponent helped involuntarily. Marc Cucurella’s shot was parried by Al-Owais, but the ball bounced off Al-Tambakti into the goal. A fifth goal from Ferran Torres in stoppage time was disallowed for offside after a lengthy video review.
