Spain beat Austria 3-0 on Thursday at Los Angeles Stadium and moved into the last 16, with Mikel Oyarzabal scoring twice and Pedro Porro adding the other goal. The result sent Spain through on a night when they controlled the match from the start and never let Austria build any rhythm.
Oyarzabal opened the scoring for Spain, and that was no routine finish for a striker who came in with 13 goals in his previous 13 internationals and 12 straight starts with a goal or an assist. He had already won Spain the Euro 2024 final, and he again looked like the player they trusted when the game needed a clean finish.
Spain did not just win. They owned the ball with 65 percent possession, took 23 shots and put 10 on target, while Austria managed five shots and none on target. That gap told the story better than the scoreline did. Pedro Porro, starting ahead of Marcos Llorente, scored his first international goal from a cross by Alex Baena, a tidy reward for a team that kept pushing after Mikel Oyarzabal’s opener.
Marc Cucurella also had a first-half goal ruled out, and Austria came closest to breaking through when Sasa Kalajdzic sent a header just wide in the 61st minute. Those moments were the exceptions. For most of the night Austria spent its first World Cup knockout appearance since 1954 chasing the game without ever threatening to change it.
That is the hard edge of the result. Austria reached a milestone it had not touched in generations, but Spain made that achievement feel brief by taking control of the ball, the chances and the score. Spain now moves on with a statement win, while Austria leaves with the frustration of getting to the knockout stage and finding no shot on target when it mattered most.
