Spain 4-0 Saudi Arabia: Yamal's First, and Through

Five days earlier, in this same stadium, Spain had 27 shots and nothing to show for them. Against Saudi Arabia they needed eleven minutes.

The goal that broke it open was the one everyone wanted to see. Mikel Oyarzabal dug out a low cross from the left, Lamine Yamal slid in at the near post and poked it home from a tight angle, and Spain were ahead before Saudi Arabia had touched the ball in anger. It was Yamal’s first World Cup goal, on his first World Cup start — and it put an 18-year-old in company you do not expect to keep. Only one other player aged 18 or under has ever opened the scoring at a World Cup: a 17-year-old Pelé, against Wales, in 1958.

After that the game stopped being a contest.

What happened in Spain vs Saudi Arabia?

Spain did not so much win the first half as end it early. By the time Yamal scored, they had already strung together 39 passes — more than any team had managed before a goal at this tournament — and that was the tone for everything that followed: keep the ball, move it forward, do not let Saudi Arabia breathe.

The second goal came on 21 minutes, Oyarzabal bundling in a scrappy one at the back post. The third arrived two minutes later, the same man turning a defender and finishing from close range. Three goals inside 25 minutes — something no side had done at a World Cup since Germany’s Brazil-haunting night in 2014. Oyarzabal nearly had a hat-trick before the half hour, rattling the crossbar after Mohammed Al-Owais made a mess of a back pass.

It finished 4-0, though the fourth was almost an afterthought: Marc Cucurella’s corner four minutes into the second half was parried straight onto Hassan Al-Tambakti and over the line. Ferran Torres thought he had a fifth in stoppage time, only for VAR to call it back for offside. By then nobody was counting.

Why does Yamal’s first World Cup goal put him next to Pelé?

Because of who he is and when he did it. Yamal is 18, a European champion already — he won the Euro 2024 final the day after his 17th birthday — and he came into this tournament as one of the players the whole thing was being sold on. The opener against Cape Verde, where he came off the bench and could not unlock anything, had left a small itch. The first start scratched it inside quarter of an hour.

Equalling Pelé is the kind of line that sounds like a gimmick until you sit with it. The list of teenagers who have opened a World Cup match is two names long, and the other one is the most famous footballer who ever lived. Yamal will not care about the symmetry tonight, but it is a fair marker of where he already sits.

The goal itself was a striker’s goal more than a winger’s — a near-post run, a first-time finish off a teammate’s cross. That it was Oyarzabal who set it up matters, because the two of them carried the night between them.

Was taking Yamal and Oyarzabal off at half-time a risk?

It would have been, in a tighter game. In this one it was just sensible.

Spain are managing Yamal’s minutes deliberately. He has said himself it felt “too soon” to be playing full matches this early in a tournament, and De la Fuente had talked beforehand about giving him something like an hour. At 3-0 up, with a place in the next round close to sealed, there was no argument for keeping either scorer on the pitch — so off they both came, legs saved for the rounds that will actually test this team.

That Spain did not drop off after the change says something useful about the squad behind the headline names. The lead never wobbled. For a coach trying to get a deep, talented group through a long summer, a half you can switch off in is worth as much as the goals that bought it.

What did this fix from the Cape Verde draw?

The thing we had flagged before a ball was kicked. Our Spain tactical preview argued that this is a side that passes better than almost anyone but can go quiet in front of goal against a packed defence — and the 0-0 with Cape Verde proved the point in the most frustrating way possible.

Saudi Arabia were a different, more open problem, and Spain answered it the simplest way: they scored early and made the game come to them. De la Fuente put his finger on it afterwards, saying his team “needed more verticality and more intensity, suffocating the opponent from the very first minute.” That is exactly what was missing against Cape Verde — not possession, but the willingness to turn it into something the moment a gap appeared.

It helped, of course, to have Oyarzabal in this mood. The man who scored the winner in the Euro 2024 final is not a luxury finisher; he is a No. 9 who takes the chances Spain’s passing creates, and on a night like this that is the whole difference.

What does Spain 4-0 Saudi Arabia mean for Group H?

It flips the group on its head. A round ago every team in Group H had drawn and Spain were level with everyone, including the Saudi side that had held Uruguay. One emphatic afternoon later, Spain sit top on four points and Saudi Arabia, still without a win, are bottom and close to going out.

In the 48-team format, the top two of each group go through automatically along with the eight best third-placed teams, so four points with a game in hand all but books Spain’s place in the Round of 32. As one of the four group winners drawn against a runner-up rather than a third-placed side, Spain will also have a rough idea of the shape of their knockout path before the group is even done.

None of which answers the real question — what happens when the next opponent parks the bus the way Cape Verde did. But for one night, the team that looked stuck finally looked like the favourites they were billed as, and the 18-year-old leading the line looked every bit the reason why.