Lamine dazzles Hollywood, and Spain regains the spotlight at the World Cup

He didn’t score, but he got all the “Ohhhs” he wanted in the city of cinema: Lamine Yamal conquered Hollywood and led Spain to a convincing 3-0 victory over Austria on Thursday, setting up a Round of 16 matchup against the winner of Portugal vs. Croatia.

The European made a strong statement in the tournament with goals from Mikel Oyarzabal (36' and 89'), who now has four goals in the 2026 World Cup, and Pedro Porro (66'), with his first international goal, in a dream setting like SoFi Stadium.

Spain will travel to Dallas to face the winner of the match between Portugal and Croatia, which takes place this Thursday (11:00 p.m. GMT) in Toronto.

"Great teams step up when they’re needed. We were paying close attention to what happened in the previous matches. We’ve come close to perfection in every aspect. We have to keep improving," Spanish head coach Luis de la Fuente said.

The Oyarzabal-Cucurella connection

Spain needed a leap in quality to make a deep run in the World Cup, and the move to Los Angeles couldn’t have worked out better: fourth consecutive match without conceding a goal, their first knockout-round victory in the World Cup since winning the 2010 title in South Africa, and the return of the much-needed fluidity that had been missing from their play.

With this victory, they’ve matched the 35-game unbeaten streak in official matches set by La Roja’s “golden generation” between 2007 and 2009, leaving them just two games shy of Italy’s all-time record (37 between 2018 and 2021).

A rock in defense, they didn’t allow a single shot on goal against Austria. Their goalkeeper, Unai Simón, recorded his fourth consecutive clean sheet, tying the Spanish World Cup record set in 2010.

Spain nearly scored on the very first play (1'), a counterattack started and finished by Lamine Yamal that fizzled out in the gloves of Alexander Schlager.

Beyond that missed opportunity, the play confirmed Austria’s intention not to sit back. Good news for La Roja, who finally had space to open up their game.

Against this backdrop—so different from the defensive walls put up by Cape Verde (0-0) and Saudi Arabia (4-0) or the battle against Uruguay (1-0), Spain put on a convincing performance.

But there’s a leap from “notable” to “outstanding,” and the European champions finally made it after the first water break.

Pedro Porro, a striker’s header

Lamine came close to scoring with a slalom run along the end line (32'), a lob that went too high (34') and another harmless shot (38').

But La Roja must once again thank its quiet goal-scorer, Mikel Oyarzabal, who was lethal with a first-touch shot across the goal after an assist from the left by Marc Cucurella.

The new player for Real Madrid made up for the goal he had previously had disallowed (30') by setting up a goal from a corner kick following a foul by Pau Cubarsí on the goalkeeper.

And just before halftime (45+3'), Álex Baena blasted a free kick off the crossbar, with Lamine ready for the rebound but coming up against a towering Schlager.

If there was any suspense in the second half, Pedro Porro put an end to it with a powerful header off an assist from Álex Baena.

Austria, which unsuccessfully relied on veteran Marko Arnautovic in the second half, was no match for Barcelona and seemed almost content just to avoid a rout.

After Lamine (86'), named man of the match, was substituted to a standing ovation, Oyarzabal kept up the pressure and scored his second goal, again off a pass from Cucurella.

Rosalía, Javier Bardem, and Penélope Cruz were celebrating in the stand. Los Angeles was definitely awash in the red of the Spanish stars this Thursday.

With information from AFP