Spain spent their opening match firing blanks. Six days later in Atlanta, the European champions emptied the chamber inside half an hour. A 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia at Atlanta Stadium in Group H turned a stuttering campaign into a statement, with teenager Lamine Yamal and Real Sociedad forward Mikel Oyarzabal doing the damage before the break.
Yamal, handed his first start of the tournament after returning from a hamstring scare, broke the deadlock in the 10th minute, gliding to the back post to convert a low Oyarzabal delivery from the left. Oyarzabal then took the game away from the Green Falcons entirely, striking twice in the space of four minutes — first in the 21st, then the 24th — to make it 3-0 while the match was still finding its rhythm. The fourth arrived just after the restart, an own goal turned in by defender Hassan Al-Tambakti in the 49th minute. A late Ferran Torres effort was chalked off by VAR, the only blemish on an otherwise flawless afternoon.
