CALIFORNIA: Spain ended a 16-year FIFA World Cup knockout-stage winless run with a commanding 3-0 victory over Austria at the Los Angeles Stadium on Friday.
With this win, La Roja booked their place in the Round of 16 in front of a 70,492 crowd as Mikel Oyarzabal scored twice and Pedro Porro added his maiden international goal to seal the emphatic win.
This marked Spain’s first victory in a World Cup knockout match since defeating the Netherlands in the 2010 final to lift their maiden world title.
Since that triumph, Spain had failed to win a knockout fixture at the World Cup, suffering penalty-shootout exits to Russia in the Round of 16 in 2018 after a 1-1 draw, and to Morocco at the same stage in 2022 following a goalless stalemate.
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Luis de la Fuente’s men remained dominant right from the outset, as evidenced by their 64.5 percent ball possession. Austria failed to test Spain’s defence, with goalkeeper Unai Simón not required to make a single save, while his Austrian counterpart was forced to make six.
After a testing first 35 minutes, Spain’s attacking play paid off as Oyarzabal converted a Marc Cucurella’s low-driven cross from the left to score his third goal of the tournament.
Spain had looked set to open the scoring much earlier, but Marc Cucurella’s close-range goal was disallowed due to a foul by one of the Spain players on goalkeeper Alexander Schlager as the corner was delivered.
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At half-time, the scoreline remained 1-0, with Austria looking less threatening.
After the break, the Red Fury picked up where they left off and kept attacking the post. In the meantime, Austria made two substitutions in the 60th minute with Marko Arnautovic and Sasa Kalajdzic replacing Gregoritsch and Schmid.
Sasa Kalajdzic made an immediate impact in the next minute after coming on the field, after missing a chance of heading Sabitzer’s cross, which went onto the roof of the net.
But Pedro Porro’s maiden international goal in the 66th minute ensured of Spain playing in the last 16. The 26-year-old managed to finish with a simple header after taking a cross from Alex Baena to score his first international goal.
Spain has now kept their four consecutive clean sheets and will face either Croatia or Portugal in the Round of 16.
