The European champions bounced back with a devastating performance to get their first win of the 2026 World Cup. Analyse the game here with our Spain vs Saudi Arabia stats page.
Spain got their World Cup campaign back on track as impressive first-half displays from Mikel Oyarzabal and Lamine Yamal sealed an emphatic 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia.
Following their shock goalless draw with tournament debutants Cape Verde, Spain looked back to their brilliant best here and moved top of Group H after their first two matches.
Having already shown flashes of early brilliance, Yamal needed just 10 minutes to mark his first start at a World Cup with a goal, as the talented teenager tapped Oyarzabal’s teasing cross past Saudi Arabia goalkeeper Mohammed Al Owais after arriving at the back post.
Al Owais was then on his toes to deny Álex Baena an effort on goal after he was cleverly picked out by Yamal, but Spain’s persistence eventually prevailed when Oyarzabal struck twice in three minutes to put the game beyond reach inside 25 minutes.
After Saudi Arabia failed to deal with a corner, Dani Olmo’s snapshot was flicked on by Aymeric Laporte and Saud Abdulhamid was caught out by Oyarzabal, who took a touch before finishing into the bottom-right corner.
1 – On MD1, Mikel Oyarzabal became the first player on record with 0 touches in the first 30 minutes of a FIFA World Cup game.
On MD2, he became just the third player to score/assist three goals in the opening 30 minutes (both since 1966).
Rebound. pic.twitter.com/8ZulhjxRwQ
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 21, 2026
Oyarzabal brought up his brace soon after with a cushioned volley from close range, and the Real Sociedad man came within inches of a first-half hat-trick nine minutes before the break, but his outside-of-the-foot attempt clipped the crossbar after Al Owais gifted him possession.
With the damage done before half-time, Spain manager Luis de la Fuente chose to replace Oyarzabal and Yamal at the break, but Spain increased their advantage four minutes after the restart when Marc Cucurella‘s shot was saved, only for the rebound to hit the unfortunate Hassan Al Tambakti and roll into the net.
La Roja continued to pile on the pressure to add further gloss to the scoreline, but Pedro Porro’s stinging drive and a Ferran Torres header were repelled by Al Owais, with the latter also seeing a stoppage-time strike ruled out for offside after a VAR review.
Oyarzabal Enjoys Redemption as Yamal Makes His Mark
Spain were criticised for being too slow and lethargic as they laboured to a surprise draw with Cape Verde on Matchday 1, with Oyarzabal the man taking much of the flack. He became the first player on record (since 1966) to fail to touch the ball in the first 30 minutes of a World Cup game last time out, but this time, he was the star of the show.
With two goals and an assist, Oyarzabal became only the second player on record to score or assist three goals in the opening 25 minutes of a World Cup match, after Hungary’s László Fazekas against El Salvador in 1982 (one goal and two assists).
He has also now been involved in 21 goals in 14 matches for Spain since the start of 2025 (14 goals, seven assists), the highest tally by a European player across all competitions for his national team during this period, alongside Erling Haaland (21).
But Yamal, of course, had to have his say. Aged 18 years and 343 days, he is only the second teenager to score for Spain at the World Cup, after Gavi against Costa Rica in 2022 (18y 110d). He also finished with team-high totals for successful dribbles (two) and shots (five).
Yamal joins this list
Yamal and Oyarzabal’s showings laid the foundations for Spain to give much-needed minutes to both Mikel Merino and Nico Williams. They saw out the final half hour without exerting themselves at all.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Spain vs Saudi Arabia stats from their 2026 FIFA World Cup Group H meeting at Atlanta Stadium on 21 June.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Spain vs Saudi Arabia: Post-Match Opta Facts
Spain remain unbeaten in each of their last 32 matches across all competitions (W23 D9), now the outright second-longest streak without defeat of their history (35, February 2007 – June 2009).
Aged 18 years and 343 days old, Lamine Yamal became the eighth-youngest player to score at the FIFA World Cup, and the third-youngest to do so on their first start after Spain’s Gavi (18y 110d in 2022) and Romania’s Nicolae Kovács (18y 197d in 1930).
With two goals and an assist, Spain’s Mikel Oyarzabal was only the second player on record (since 1966) to record three goal involvements in the opening 25 minutes of a FIFA World Cup match, after Hungary’s László Fazekas against El Salvador in 1982 (1 goal, 2 assists).
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