INGLEWOOD, Calif. — This World Cup has belonged to its biggest stars. Spain showed Thursday it didn’t need its biggest star.
With Lamine Yamal largely quiet, Spain relied on crisp passing, patient buildup and a pair of perfect Marc Cucurella setups to coast past Austria 3-0 in a Round of 32 match at SoFi Stadium.
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Cucurella picked out Mikel Oyarzabal for Spain’s first goal in the 36th minute, slipping a perfectly weighted pass into the box that Oyarzabal guided into the far corner with his first touch. Pedro Porro added his first international goal in the second half, and Cucurella found Oyarzabal again in the 89th minute to finish off the win.
With the win, Spain advances to face the winner of Portugal and Croatia in the Round of 16, but it all started with a moment of brilliance between Cucurella and Oyarzabal.
“The image of the team is fabulous,” Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said after the match. “We are not yet satisfied. We are going for more.”
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Austria coach Ralf Rangnick agreed, calling Spain “possibly the next world champion” and said his team had faced “an opponent that is in a special class.”
Before the game settled into Spain’s control, SoFi Stadium already had the feel of a La Roja showcase. The announced attendance was 70,492, with Spanish flags and red jerseys taking over the building. Mexico fans also had a strong presence, with green jerseys scattered throughout while Austria fans were few and far between.
After a short feeling-out stretch to begin the game, Spain took over and had the better chances for most of the first half. Austria’s best look came when Michael Gregoritsch just missed getting on the end of a cross in front of goal, but the Austrians finished the half with only two shots and none on target.
Spain thought it had scored around the 30th minute when Cucurella blasted a shot into the net after a corner, but the goal was waved off after Austria goalkeeper Alexander Schlager was ruled to have been impeded. VAR checked it and the no-goal call stood.
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A few minutes later, Schlager kept Austria alive again, pushing a low Oyarzabal shot just wide of the post.
But there was nothing Schlager could do in the 36th minute. Pedri started the move through the middle and got the ball to Cucurella, who picked out Oyarzabal with a perfect ball into the box, and Oyarzabal cleanly swept it into the far corner with his first touch.
It was Oyarzabal’s 16th goal in his last 16 games for Spain. He wasn’t done.
Spain nearly doubled its advantage in first-half stoppage time. Alex Baena curled a free kick off the crossbar, and after Austria failed to clear the rebound, Yamal was denied from close range by another excellent save from Schlager.
Rangnick looked to change the match after halftime, reshuffling his side with a couple substitutions in hopes of finding an equalizer. Instead, Spain struck again.
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In the 66th minute, Cucurella worked the ball to Baena on the left, and Baena delivered the unselfish cross into the box. Porro was there to meet it with a powerful header that beat Schlager and doubled Spain’s lead. It was Porro’s first international goal and Baena’s first assist of the World Cup after the midfielder passed up a chance to shoot himself in favor of setting up his teammate.
Spain put the match away in the 89th minute, and once again it was the Cucurella-Oyarzabal connection.
De la Fuente reserved special praise for Cucurella, calling him “like a clock.”
“He always plays well. He always does what he has to do,” the Spain coach said.
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Given too much space on the left, Cucurella bent another perfectly weighted ball into the penalty area, where Oyarzabal slid it past Schlager for his second goal. It capped another clinical performance for the Spain forward, who now has 17 goals in his last 16 appearances for the national team.
Spain will face the winner of Thursday night’s Portugal-Croatia Round of 32 match in the Round of 16.
Austria’s tournament ended with little to show offensively. Spain finished with a 2.84-0.32 edge in expected goals, outshot Austria 23-5 and put 10 shots on target. Austria failed to test Unai Simón, finishing without a single shot on goal as Spain recorded another clean sheet, it’s fourth in this World Cup.
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Yet even after one of Spain’s most complete performances of the tournament, coach de la Fuente insisted there was another level to reach
“Satisfaction can kill you,” he said. “We have to keep improving.”
