De la Fuente celebrates 65th as Spain hit four, Oyarzabal hits brace | OneFootball

On his 65th birthday in Atlanta, De la Fuente watched Spain score four against Saudi Arabia at the World Cup. According to El Periódico Mediterráneo, starting Mikel Oyarzabal and Lamine Yamal changed the mood inside half an hour.

Only days earlier against Cape Verde, Oyarzabal set an unwanted mark by going 30 minutes without touching the ball, while Yamal came on late and made little impact.

Restored to the line-up, Yamal was electric, within three minutes he beat his marker twice, shot on target and crossed for Oyarzabal. At 10 minutes he opened the scoring from Oyarzabal’s delivery.

The Real Sociedad captain, later named player of the match, struck twice in the opening 24 minutes. Spain had never scored three inside 24 minutes at a World Cup.

Yamal’s urgency had context beyond the spotlight of peers such as Mbappé, Messi and Vinícius watching. A 45 minutes limit had been set, and he aimed to settle it before departing.

He did not emerge after the interval, with two months of inactivity since an April muscle injury demanding caution. Oyarzabal also stayed inside, yet he has climbed into Spain’s top 10 scorers and has contributed 11 goals and six assists across the last 10 internationals.

Source: El Periódico Mediterráneo