Substituting Oyarzabal, who single handedly created three goals at halftime, Spain finally no longer had to treat possession like a rosary.

The Spaniards only worked for half a shift. To be precise, their two most lethal weapons up front only put in 24 minutes of work.

In the 10th minute, Oyarzabal picked up the ball on the left, glanced up, and drilled a low pass through two defensive lines along the grass, leaving Yamal at the far post with nothing more than a simple tap-in. Eleven minutes later, a corner kick crashed into the box, and amid a chaotic scramble, Oyarzabal used the outside of his foot to flick the ball into the net from the left side of the six-yard box. Before the Saudis could catch their breath, in the 24th minute, he sensed a gap in the defensive shift, found himself unmarked, and slotted home.

24 minutes. Two goals, one assist.

At the halftime whistle, he and Yamal were substituted together.

Yamal had suffered a hamstring injury in April and hadn't started in two months. The medical team had only approved a half-game workload before the match. It was a planned precaution. But the on-field effect was brutal—Spain led by so much that the two goal-scoring heroes could sit on the bench and treat the remaining 45 minutes like a training video.

Looking closely at those 24 minutes, Oyarzabal didn't play a traditional number 9 role. There were no flashy dribbles, no step-overs, no fancy flicks. A reporter summed him up post-match with four words: "A heavy sword, no edge." Every touch he made in the box had a clear purpose, with all unnecessary embellishment stripped away.

The first assist—a low drive that pierced the defense—relied on vision. The second goal—an outside-of-the-foot finish—wasn't about brute force; it was all about positional awareness in the box, reaction speed, and a bit of luck. The third goal—the quietest of the lot—came from catching the defense's half-second lapse during a shift. He always appears in the right place at the right time.

Born in 1997, he joined Real Sociedad in 2011 and has since played over 400 matches and scored over 130 goals, spending his entire career rooted in the Basque Country. He never went to a top club, never became the national team's core. Before the 2022 World Cup, he was injured and watched from home as Spain lost to Morocco on penalties. Spain had the possession in that game, they had the woodwork, but they didn't have the goals. The old "toothless attack" narrative was dragged out and rehashed.

A twelve-year-old problem. From winning the title in 2010 to losing on penalties again in 2022, for twelve full years, Spain didn't win a single knockout match at the World Cup (eliminated in the group stage in 2014, and lost on penalties twice in 2018 and 2022). Dominating without scoring is a disease embedded in this team's DNA. Entering 2026, the disease hadn't healed. In their first match against Cape Verde, Spain had 27 shots, 7 on target, and 0 goals. Oyarzabal had 0 touches in the first 30 minutes of that game. The team's longest World Cup goal drought in history—294 minutes—was only broken by Yamal in the 10th minute of the second match.

At the pre-match press conference, a reporter threw the old "toothless attack" narrative in De la Fuente's face. The old man didn't hold back, firing back directly: "You media only look at stats. I know how to use my forwards."

Fourteen days later, the 29-year-old Oyarzabal saved the old man's face in 24 minutes. After this match, he has 14 goals and 7 assists in his last 13 appearances for the national team, bringing his career total to 27 goals, tying Morientes for 7th on Spain's all-time scoring list. He is also the second player in World Cup history (since detailed statistics began in 1966) to be directly involved in three goals within the first 25 minutes of a match. De la Fuente's post-match assessment of him: "A great among greats."

Spain's play wasn't exactly flashy; it was simply that the Saudi defense collapsed completely.

Saudi Arabia had 3 shots in the entire match. Their expected goals (xG) was 0.14, meaning based on shot quality, they were "supposed" to score 0.14 goals—roughly one goal every seven matches. Big chances created: 0. Possession: 33%. Pass completion rate: 81%. In football statistics, these numbers aren't called defense; they're called getting pinned down and ground into the dirt.

The 49th-minute scene best illustrates Saudi Arabia's predicament. Cucurella unleashed a volley in the chaos following a corner kick. The goalkeeper saved it, and the ball bounced in front of Hassan Tambakti. This Al-Hilal center-back—transferred in August 2023 for €11.5 million, winner of the 2018 AFC U-19 Championship with Saudi Arabia, considered the future of the Saudi defense—deflected the ball into his own net.

An own goal has an element of luck. But this one kick exposed the true state of the entire Saudi defense over those 90 minutes: passive, panicked, never knowing where the ball would come from next.

Four years ago in Qatar, the picture was different. In their first Group C match, Saudi Arabia stunned Argentina 2-1. Al-Dawsari's winner prompted the king to declare a national holiday. That 2-1 victory was enough for Saudi football to boast about for four years.

Fast forward to Group H in 2026: a 1-1 draw with Uruguay in the opener, a 0-4 loss to Spain in the second match, and a 0-0 draw with Cape Verde in the third. Three matches, zero wins, one goal scored, five conceded. Eliminated. From beating a world champion to failing to beat an island nation with a population under 600,000, Saudi Arabia took four years to prove that the night in Qatar was an anomaly, and that showing their true colors was the baseline. Coach Donis admitted post-match that the team "lacked hardness around the box" and urged the local media to "be realistic."

Spain's problem has never been possession. Since winning the title in 2010, what they've lacked is the person to put the ball in the net. In knockout matches, they frequently turned ball possession into a rosary, and penalty shootout exits became a habit. The 27 shots and 0 goals against Cape Verde in the opener was far more than bad luck—no one could do the right thing at the right time.

Oyarzabal filled that gap. Yamal provided the foundation—born on July 13, 2007, he scored a World Cup goal at 18 years and 343 days, ranking 8th on the list of youngest World Cup goalscorers. In the 22 matches he has started, Spain remains unbeaten (16 wins, 6 draws). But the 18-year-old Yamal is responsible for extracting the ball, while the 29-year-old Oyarzabal is responsible for smashing it in. With that kind of cold-bloodedness in the box, Spain no longer has to pass the ball around outside the box until their legs go weak.

In the second half, the two core players sat on the bench and watched for 45 minutes. Yamal said: "The pre-match plan was to play a half and rest. Mainly to help the team."

Spain has become so luxurious that they can let their two most dangerous players clock out early. Unai Simón's goal continued its clean sheet streak in this 4-0 victory. His consecutive minutes without conceding a goal in the World Cup has reached 519 minutes, equivalent to six consecutive clean sheets, the longest streak in tournament history.

In the next knockout match, what opponents will truly have to worry about is whether a 29-year-old Basque forward can finish the game within 24 minutes.