The Green Falcons, seeking to emulate the great Cape Verde escape, employed five men at the back in a departure from their usual 4-4-2 formation. But it was scant insurance against the artistry of an 18-year-old.<\/p>\n
Yamal showed what Spain were missing in their opener from the outset, prancing around the Saudi defence threateningly in the very first minute.<\/p>\n
Ten minutes of pressing in the Saudi half bore fruit after a delightful transition in midfield, as the ball found Mikel Oyarzabal on the left flank.<\/p>\n
The frontman, who could only get his first touch after 30 minutes against Cape Verde, eyed a charging Yamal to his right and squared the ball across. The teen Barcelona sensation slid in smoothly and tapped it deftly through the narrow gap past custodian Mohammed Al-Owais. Just like that, the luminous new superstar had arrived on the biggest stage.<\/p>\n
The creative incision that went missing against the Blue Sharks was on full display. Provider Oyarzabal soon turned finisher, netting twice in the space of three minutes.<\/p>\n
First, Dani Olmo sent a corner to Aymeric Laporte, who was able to nod it onwards to Oyarzabal. The Real Sociedad captain did the rest, beating Al-Owais to his right.<\/p>\n
Another cross cracked the Saudi defence open, and Olmo set Oyarzabal up to stab in his second. Spain were up 3-0 before the first hydration break, and looking good for many more.<\/p>\n
Oyarzabal very nearly completed his hat-trick in the 36th with a masterful trivela that flicked the crossbar. That no more goals were scored by half-time was down to Spain\u2019s minor follies rather than the Green Falcons\u2019 resistance.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Georgios Donis\u2019 men, the Spanish party resumed post lemon break. Substitute Ferran Torres\u2019 corner delivery was flicked on to Marc Cucurella, who pile-drove it with his left foot. The powerful shot was goal-bound and took a deflection off Hassan Al-Tambakti before going in.<\/p>\n
Saudi\u2019s first shot on target came in the 81st minute, a tame effort easily pouched by Unai Simon.<\/p>\n
Spain found the back of the net for the fifth time, only for the goal to be ruled out on video review. A neat stoppage-time move saw Pedro Porro knock the ball across the six-yard box for a waiting Torres to slot home, but the Barcelona attacker was deemed to be marginally offside.<\/p>\n
Unlike their previous outing, where Spain were hardly able to move the ball centrally, La Roja found ample acreage on the wings as well as down the middle.<\/p>\n
\nSaudi Arabia are not yet out of contention and Spain are still a point away from the knockouts. But the game depicted just how potent the European champions can be, when at full tilt.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Green Falcons, seeking to emulate the great Cape Verde escape, employed five men at the back in a departure from their usual 4-4-2 formation. But it was scant insurance against the artistry of an 18-year-old. Yamal showed what Spain were missing in their opener from the outset, prancing around the Saudi defence threateningly in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}