Spain Looks Like Spain Again

Starting Lineup

Mercedes-Benz Stadium hosted Spain for the second time in six days, and this time Spain gave Atlanta the version most people expected to see by winning 4-0.

The first visit ended in a scoreless draw against Cape Verde, a result that made the rest of Group H feel a little tighter than Spain wanted. So the match against Saudi Arabia carried a simple question. Was Cape Verde a warning, or just a bad day at the office for one of the tournament favorites?

Spain answered with more than the scoreline. It beat Saudi Arabia 4-0, scored three times in the first 24 minutes, and turned the second half into something closer to preparation for what comes next.

Saudi Arabia arrived with a point of its own after drawing Uruguay, but Spain simply had too much quality.

The win put the group back in order, but the performance did something else. It made Spain look like Spain again.

Match Control

1st Half

Spain was on top from the opening minutes. Alex Baena had the first look in the 1st minute, Lamine Yamal came inside onto his left foot in the 3rd, and Dani Olmo reached a corner sequence in the 7th. None became the opener, but each chance pushed Saudi Arabia deeper than it wanted to defend.

Yamal was already stretching Saudi Arabia on Spain’s right side. He kept showing for the ball wide, kept forcing the back line to shift, and Spain found him in the 10th minute. Oyarzabal drove the ball across goal, and Yamal arrived at the back post to finish with his right foot.

From there, Spain kept Saudi Arabia pinned into its own half. The chances came from different angles, with Porro joining from the right, Pedri collecting a loose ball, and Baena finding space between Saudi Arabia’s midfield and back line. In the 16th minute, Baena picked out Oyarzabal in the box, and Alowais made the save to keep the score at 1-0.

Saudi Arabia survived that chance, but it could not get out. Five minutes later, Spain sent another ball into the box, and the clearance never really cleared the danger. Olmo was first to the loose ball and hit it through traffic. Laporte helped it on, and Oyarzabal read the deflection faster than the defenders around him. He stepped in front of Saud Abdulhamid, took control inside the six-yard box, and poked the ball past Alowais into the bottom corner.

Spain’s third came three minutes later, and it was the cleanest move of the first half. Porro served the ball from the right toward the back post, where Cucurella had time to meet it rather than force a first-time shot. Cucurella volleyed the ball back across the box, turning the service into a pass.

Olmo was waiting in the middle and redirected it with his head toward the near post. Oyarzabal had already found the space, and this time he finished with a left-footed volley from close range. In three minutes, he had turned a 1-0 lead into 3-0.

Saudi Arabia’s first attempt did not come until the 34th minute. Abdulelah Alamri got to a loose ball and sent a right-footed shot off target, but it did little to change the half. Spain went straight back to creating danger at the other end.

Oyarzabal nearly had his third goal in the 35th minute after Alowais gave the ball away. He tried to beat the goalkeeper with the outside of his left foot, and the shot clipped the crossbar. Yamal forced another save in the same minute, then missed with his left foot in the 36th.

Spain kept the pressure on through halftime. Oyarzabal sent another left-footed chance off target in the 41st, and Rodri had Spain’s final attempt of the half in the 45th minute. Spain went into the break up 3-0, with Saudi Arabia chasing the match and struggling to get out of its own half.

2nd Half

Both teams made two changes at halftime.

Ferran Torres replaced Oyarzabal. Yeremy Pino replaced Yamal, and that substitution mattered beyond the scoreline. Yamal is Spain’s most dangerous player, but he was not fully fit after two months out. With Spain up 3-0, the priority was getting him through the match and ready for what comes next.

Saudi Arabia changed in midfield. Abdullah Alhamddan replaced left midfielder Musab Aljuwayr. Mohamed Kanno replaced central midfielder Abdullah Alkhaibari.

Saudi Arabia had the first chance after halftime. Salem Aldawsari got to a loose ball in the 48th minute and had a right-footed shot deflected on target. Unai Simon made the save.

One minute later, Spain again had the ball in Saudi Arabia’s box. Cucurella arrived onto a loose ball on the left side and took the shot. Alowais saved it, but he could not push the ball away from goal. The rebound hit Hassan Altambakti and carried back toward the net. It crossed the line for an own goal in the 49th minute, and Spain led 4-0.

At 4-0, the match was out of reach for Saudi Arabia. Spain could already think about the matches ahead, but it did not stop sending players into the box. Porro tested Alowais in the 52nd minute with a right-footed shot from a pass. Moments later, Ferran Torres reached another chance with his head, and Alowais had to save again.

Saudi Arabia made two more changes in the 60th minute. Mohammed Abu Alshamat replaced Abdulelah Alamri, and Ala Alhajji replaced Feras Albrikan. Mohamed Kanno was booked in the same minute.

Spain then made two changes of its own. Mikel Merino replaced Olmo in the 61st minute, and Nico Williams replaced Baena in the 62nd. The substitutions changed the players, but Spain kept working through the wide areas. Porro and Cucurella were still involved from the fullback positions, while Yeremy Pino and Nico Williams gave Spain fresh runners higher up the field.

Ferran Torres missed with his right foot in the 64th minute. Fabian Ruiz replaced Pedri in the 70th, giving Spain another fresh midfielder for the final stretch.

Saudi Arabia’s best second-half chance came in the 80th minute. Alhamddan got to a loose ball and hit a left-footed shot on target. Unai Simon made the save, preserving the clean sheet on a night when Saudi Arabia had too little possession and too few entries into dangerous areas to pull the match back.

Merino had Spain’s final recorded attempt in the 97th minute, a left-footed shot from a pass that Saudi Arabia blocked. It was the last piece of a second half Spain had already put under control. The damage had been done before halftime, and the own goal after the restart removed whatever suspense remained.

Saudi Arabia’s best second-half chance came in the 80th minute. Alhamddan got to a loose ball and hit a left-footed shot on target. Unai Simon made the save, keeping Saudi Arabia off the scoreboard.

Spain still had one more ball in the net. Ferran Torres scored in stoppage time, but the goal did not survive a VAR review. Spain had already done enough, and the final minutes passed without Saudi Arabia finding a way back into the match.

Closing Thoughts

The draw against Cape Verde left no room for another slow afternoon, and Spain treated Saudi Arabia that way from the opening minutes. It scored early, scored again, then turned the match into something closer to a systems check than a survival test.

Saudi Arabia was clearly outmatched. It spent most of the match reacting, and even its best second-half moments came with the result already beyond reach. It had a couple of chances and forced Simon to protect the clean sheet, but those moments never made Spain feel stretched. Saudi Arabia did not have enough of the ball, enough territory, or enough penalty-box threat to pull the match into doubt.

Yamal got his tournament moment with the 10th-minute goal. That mattered on its own, but the halftime substitution mattered too. Spain got 45 productive minutes from its most important attacking player, then got him off the field without injury. For a player still working back to full fitness, that was probably as good as the afternoon could have gone.

Oyarzabal answered in a different way. Against Cape Verde, he was part of the frustration around a scoreless draw. Against Saudi Arabia, he set up Yamal’s opener, scored twice in three minutes, and gave Spain the kind of penalty-box presence it had been missing.

The result fixed Spain’s group standing, but the performance did more than correct the table. It gave Spain goals, managed minutes, a clean sheet, and a sharper version of the attack that had gone missing six days earlier.