Oyarzabal Scores Twice as Spain Send Austria Home in 2026

Two touches. Two finishes. Two chances to prove that a player people still describe as underrated does not need much room to hurt you. Mikel Oyarzabal scored twice as Spain beat Austria 3-0 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on July 3, 2026, sending the European champions through to the Round of 16 in a Round of 32 match at the World Cup. He needed thirteen yards for the first one and twelve for the second, and both times the ball was in the net before Austria’s defense had finished reacting.

Spain won 3-0. Oyarzabal scored in the 36th minute and again in the 89th, with Pedro Porro adding a header in between in the 66th. Austria never had a shot on target all night.

For Oyarzabal, this was not a moment that arrived from nowhere.

He has scored fifteen international goals since the start of 2025, a number that only Erling Haaland can beat among players from Europe. Coming into this game, Real Sociedad’s forward had found the net in eleven of his last ten appearances for Spain, a stretch of finishing that made him the obvious release valve every time Luis de la Fuente’s side needed someone to make a chance count. Against Austria, he needed two.

The first one told you everything about how Spain wanted to play. Pedri drove through the middle of the pitch with the ball at his feet, drawing three Austrian bodies toward him before slipping a pass left to Marc Cucurella. The full-back did not need to think about his next move. He rolled the ball across the face of goal, low and inviting, and Oyarzabal arrived to sweep it home from close range with his left foot. It was his eleventh goal in ten caps and it put Spain ahead in a knockout match at a World Cup for the first time at halftime since 2002.

Here’s the thing Spain had already seen a goal chalked off before that. Cucurella thought he had scored from a corner in the 29th minute, only for the referee to rule out the finish for a foul on Alexander Schlager. Oyarzabal himself had also been denied twice already, once pushed wide by Schlager and once forced off target from a tight angle. The chances kept arriving. It took until the 36th minute for one to actually count.

Then came the wait. Austria came out for the second half and settled into their own rhythm, holding the ball, frustrating Spain’s rush to add a second. Sasa Kalajdzic almost changed the entire shape of the match seconds after coming off the bench, heading a Marcel Sabitzer cross narrowly over the bar with the goal gaping. That miss mattered. Porro doubled Spain’s lead in the 66th minute, meeting a low ball from Alex Baena to head past Schlager, and from there Austria’s night became about damage control rather than a way back in.

Oyarzabal was not finished. Cucurella found him again in the 89th minute with a bending low pass, and this time the finish came off his right foot into the bottom corner, the coolest possible way to close out a game his side had dominated from the first whistle. Nobody in that stadium was surprised. Twenty-three shots, ten on target, an expected-goals tally of 2.80 against Austria’s meager 0.32 told the story of a mismatch that only needed a finisher patient enough to take his chances when they came.

Spain move on to face either Portugal or Croatia. Oyarzabal walks away from Inglewood with two more goals to his name and a manager who now has zero excuses not to build every attack through him. He is not the player who draws headlines before kickoff. By full time, he rarely leaves anyone questioning why he should.