Spain 4-0 Saudi Arabia: Yamal's Stellar Debut Ignites Victory

Spain did not just win in Atlanta. They roared back into this World Cup.

Four days after that flat, goalless draw with Cape Verde had reopened every old doubt about La Roja, Luis de la Fuente’s side tore into Saudi Arabia, ripped up the anxiety, and left Group H with a new leader and a very clear message. Spain are here now.

At the heart of it all stood a teenager who, not long ago, was watching World Cups from a classroom.

Yamal’s first start, first goal, first statement

Lamine Yamal returned to the starting XI after his electric cameo in the opener and needed barely 10 minutes to bend the game to his will.

Spain had already stitched together 39 passes by the time the ball reached Mikel Oyarzabal on the left. His low, fizzing cross sped through the six-yard box. Yamal, ghosting in at the far post, arrived on a tight angle and simply stabbed it home. Not a trademark curler. Not a highlight-reel solo. Just a predator’s finish.

First World Cup start. First World Cup goal. The kind of simple strike that hints at frightening numbers to come.

The 16-year-old later told DAZN he had watched the 2022 tournament from his classroom and called scoring here with his family in the stands “a dream come true”. On the pitch, he played like someone wide awake to the size of the stage. Dribbles, whipped crosses, early shots – from the opening whistle he drove Spain up the pitch and dragged the tempo with him.

He gave Spain exactly what they had lacked against Cape Verde: verticality, risk, menace. He gave them belief.

Oyarzabal buries the nerves

Once Yamal broke the dam, the goals poured through.

The pressure on Spain after that opening draw was real. This was not just about three points; it was about proving that the Cape Verde game was an aberration, not a diagnosis. The tension lasted barely 20 minutes.

On 21 minutes, Saudi Arabia failed to clear another Spanish attack, and the ball squirmed across the face of goal. Oyarzabal, alive to the chaos at the back post, lunged in and poked it over the line. Scruffy. Vital.

Two minutes later, the same man twisted the knife. A sharp move, a clever run, and Oyarzabal turned the ball past Mohammed Al Owais from close range for 3-0. Spain became the first team since Germany in 2014 to score three times inside the opening 25 minutes of a World Cup match.

The game was gone for Saudi Arabia before the first hydration break.

Oyarzabal chased his hat-trick before half-time. When Al Owais gifted him possession with a loose back pass, the forward pounced, only for his first-time effort to clip the top of the crossbar. Inches away from the match ball, but his work was already done.

De la Fuente, celebrating his 65th birthday, showed his ruthless side and his pragmatic one. Yamal and Oyarzabal were both withdrawn at the interval. Job finished. Bigger battles ahead.

De la Fuente gets the response he demanded

Spain had spent the days since Cape Verde dissecting that performance. The coach was blunt: they needed more intensity, more direct running, more shots, more aggression without the ball.

They delivered.

From the first minute, Spain pressed high and suffocated Saudi Arabia. Midfielders stepped onto the ball, full-backs surged, forwards attacked space rather than simply recycling possession. De la Fuente later told DAZN they had agreed they needed to be “more vertical” and that the team “were suffocating the opponent and pinning them back into their own box” from the start. The numbers and the eye test matched his words.

The second half inevitably lost some of the first-half’s fury, but not its control. Spain eased off without ever letting go.

Own goal adds a fourth as defenders’ nightmare continues

The fourth arrived early after the restart, and it summed up Saudi Arabia’s night and this tournament’s strange trend.

From a flicked-on corner, Marc Cucurella smashed a shot at goal. Al Owais reacted brilliantly to save the initial effort, but the rebound cannoned off Hassan Al Tambakti and into his own net.

Al Tambakti’s misfortune produced the eighth own goal of this World Cup – already more than any edition bar 2018, with the group stage only halfway through. For defenders, this has become a brutal tournament to survive unscathed.

Spain thought they had a fifth deep into stoppage time when Ferran Torres turned in a Fabian Ruiz cross. The celebrations stalled, then stopped. After a long VAR check, the goal was wiped out for offside. A small irritation, nothing more.

Yamal leads, Spain follow

What lingered from Atlanta was not the disallowed goal, nor even the own goal. It was the sense of a team snapping back into focus around a rising star.

Yamal’s influence went beyond his finish. He set the tone, drove the tempo, and gave Spain a cutting edge to match their familiar passing carousel. He has already answered the demands of club football; now he looks entirely at ease as the man his country turns to when the lights are brightest.

“There is quality running right through this Spain squad,” as Sky Sports’ Peter Smith put it, but on this evidence it is the teenager who lifts everyone else to the level they need.

Spain now sit top of Group H, above Uruguay ahead of their late kick-off against Cape Verde, with Saudi Arabia bottom. De la Fuente called this “an important step for what’s to come” and warned that Uruguay will be “difficult and very tough”.

Spain needed a performance to calm the noise and sharpen their own belief. They found one – and they found, or perhaps confirmed, their leader.

If this is how Lamine Yamal plays when he is just “arriving”, what will Spain look like when he truly takes over?