For much of an international career that began a decade ago at the age of 19, Oyarzabal has not enjoyed much of the limelight.<\/p>\n
He missed out on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee.<\/p>\n
But four years later – and before a World Cup debut – he was in the form of his life with 12 goals in 12 international appearances.<\/p>\n
The double against Austria extended that run to 17 in his last 16 starts, with four goals at this tournament.<\/p>\n
“His last two seasons, since he recovered, are the best of his career,” added Balague.<\/p>\n
“Four goals in the World Cup – our most decisive player, no doubt.”<\/p>\n
Spain memorably played without a recognised striker at Euro 2012, but Oyarzabal is now very much the focal point of their attacks with two excellent finishes against Austria.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes people are in doubt about Spain because of the centre-forward, but Oyarzabal is doing the job,” former Spain defender Cesar Azpilicueta told BBC One.<\/p>\n
“A few years ago, Oyarzabal was playing a bit more on the right wing and he has transitioned more into the middle.”<\/p>\n
Since the start of last year, the only European player with more international goals than Oyarzabal is Norway striker Erling Haaland with 22.<\/p>\n
He also became the first Spanish player to score twice in a World Cup knockout match since Emilio Butragueno against Denmark in the last 16 of the 1986 tournament.<\/p>\n
The statistics are impressive, but it is not to say he is overshadowed by Lamine Yamal, with the 18-year-old playing a key role in Oyarzabal being able to shine.<\/p>\n
The Barcelona forward’s excellent ball control and dribbling skills clearly unsettles defences and pulled the Austrian defenders towards him to create more space for Oyarzabal.<\/p>\n
“When you have someone in your team like Lamine Yamal who attracts so much attention, you know you will get more space,” said former Germany midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger.<\/p>\n
“Oyarzabal uses that space, gets the ball, and scores goals.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For much of an international career that began a decade ago at the age of 19, Oyarzabal has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-739920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}