Spain 4-0 Saudi Arabia
He was back and it didn’t take long for the world’s most famous teenage footballer to make his mark in his maiden World Cup.
Ten minutes, in fact, as Lamine Yamal made his first start for Spain at the tournament and slid the ball home following a fine run and inviting delivery from Mikel Oyarzabal.
And so the tone was set for this Group H clash.
The Atlanta Stadium had an air of anticipation every time the Barca youngster got the ball and it looked like Saudi Arabia, who had gained a decent 1-1 draw with Uruguay in their first outing, were in for a long afternoon.
Of course, the Green Falcons had been here before, falling behind early on before delivering a shock on a seismic scale against the eventual winners Argentina at the last World Cup.
As it turned out this time though, the La Roja juggernaut was just beginning.
Highlights of the game
It should have been two soon afterwards but Saudi goalkeeper Mohammed Al Owais did well to deny Alex Baena.
He was left with little protection, however, as Oyarzabal ran the show and two goals in as many minutes effectively ended the match as a contest.
First, his deflected shot flew into the net after Aymeric Laporte flicked on a Dani Olmo cross.
The celebrations had barely died down when Marc Cucurella put the ball in the in the danger zone, Olmo headed across the face of goal and Oyarzabal was in the right place to touch the ball over the line.
Only the crossbar denied the Real Sociedad captain a first half hat-trick as the reigning European champions turned on the style, helped by some incredibly naive defending.
Theee and a half years after producing one of the World Cup’s most iconic moments – and the most amazing World Cup result in my lifetime – half time couldn’t come quick enough for Saudi Arabia.
Indeed, given all but one of Georgios Donis’ group play in the Middle East, predominantly the Saudi Pro League, it was clear this was one step too far.
If Saudi were unrecognisable from the side which were little over 10 minutes away from opening their tournament campaign with victory, Spain were not prepared to be kept out again.
In their first match, veteran Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha kept them at bay on many occasions as the third-smallest country (in terms of population) to qualify for a World Cup, 67th in Fifa’s latest rankings, refused to be swept aside.
Now all the World Cup 2026 highlights belonged to Spain who, incredibly, until this afternoon, had only won three matches at World Cups since being crowned world champions in 2010.
Oyarzabal and Yamal’s afternoon was done as manager Luis de la Fuente replaced them with Yeremy Pino and Feran Torres – a smart move in the heat with what Spain hope are plenty more games to come.
Three became four within three minutes of the restart as the luckless Hassan Al Tambakti saw the ball bounce off him and over the line after Al Owais kept out a shot from Real Madrid bound Cucurella.
As the pace naturally dropped, it took until nine minutes from time before Spain number one Unai Simon was called into action.
It demonstrated the gulf in class.
Key statistics
Yamal is only the second player aged 18 or younger to open the scoring in a World Cup match – the other was a 17 year-old Pele for Brazil v Wales in 1958.
His 10th minute goal meant he became the seventh player in history to score at a World Cup before the age of 19.
He is also the first player in history to start a match at both the European Championship and the World Cup while aged 18 or younger.
Spain are unbeaten across all competitions in the 22 matches they have played with Yamal in the starting XI (won 16, drawn six).
Of the 64 goals scored by La Roja in those matches, Yamal has been involved in 17 (six goals, 11 assists).
With two goals and an assist, Oyarzabal is only the second player on record (from 1966) to score or assist three goals in the opening 25 minutes of a World Cup match, after Hungary’s László Fazekas (one goal, two assists against El Salvador in 1982).
Spain, fresh from their joyous success at Euro 2024 when they became the first team to win six matches at a European Championship and then won a seventh, are bidding to become the first ever nation to twice hold both titles at the same time (following West Germany in 1976-78, France 2000-2002 and their Spanish predecessors 2010-2014).
Spain haven’t lost any of their last 12 games.
What’s next?
Saudi Arabia meet Cape Verde next Saturday (June 27) in their final outing, needing to win to have a chance of reaching the knockout stages for only the second time in their history (the only other occasion they made it out of the group stage in six attempts was also in America, in 1994).
At the same time, Spain meet Uruguay.
Check out the SBOTOP World Cup 2026 betting odds before the respective kick-offs.
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