Spanish forward Lamine Yamal doubled down on his belief that the World Cup starts now.
Yamal made the comments in a pre-match radio interview ahead of the Round of 32 match against Austria. Yamal went on to win the match MVP award in Spain’s 3–0 shutout win, which sets them up for a showdown against Portugal in the Round of 16.
In his post-match press conference on Thursday, Yamal reiterated that the battle begins in earnest now that each match is win-or-go-home.
“I’m very happy, especially with the team’s qualification, which was the most important thing,” he said after the win.
“We all left the hotel thinking we wanted to go to Dallas and play in the round of 16. ... I’m very happy for the team, above all.”
Yamal won the match MVP award for his performance. He had 60 touches, and four of his six shots were on target in the 85 minutes he played. Yamal is recovering from a hamstring injury he suffered in April and progressively ramped up from 25 minutes in his first match to 45, 65, and 85 minutes.
“[I feel] very good,” he said. “That’s it. I’m 100 percent. I’m ready to play whatever [manager Luis de la Fuente Castillo] wants. If I need to keep resting and taking care of myself, I will, but I’m at 100 percent.”
Mikel Oyarzabal led the team with two goals, while Pedro Porro added a third. Spain had 60 percent of the possession, and took 23 shots to Austria’s five. Spain now plays Portugal in the Round of 16.
In an interview on Tuesday with Spanish radio station El Partidazo de COPE, Yamal said he did not have an opinion on who was the favorite to win the Cup.
“I don’t think there’s any team where you‘d say ’it’s impossible to beat them,'” he told the host.
The host countered that France could be better than them, but Yamal said France had not beaten Spain in a long time. The host argued that France put up an impressive showing in the Group Stage, scoring 10 goals while conceding only two.
“The Group Stage means nothing,” Yamal fired back, pointing to Germany as a counterexample. Germany scored 11 goals, including a 7–1 trouncing of Curaçao, but lost to upstart Paraguay on penalties in the Round of 32.
“The World Cup starts now,” Yamal said. “Now it has nothing to do with those matches. We could have drawn everything, and now we knock out France, and that’s it. So I think there is no favorite.”
A reporter brought that quote back to him Thursday, and he reiterated his point.
“I think the important moment is now,” he said. “If you lose, you go home, and nobody wants that; no Spaniard wants that. We'll give it all. Now [we] rest and get ready for the next game.”
He also doubled down on the notion that Spain is not afraid of anyone they may face in the rest of the tournament.
“I think we have to keep growing in our game, in intensity, in everything,” he said. “But obviously, we know the quality we have. We know we’re not afraid of any team. We are Spain, and we have to show it on the field. But we trust ourselves.”
“Tomorrow is a final,” Pochettino said on Tuesday before the U.S.’s 2–0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday.
He added that he said the same thing about the pre-tournament friendlies against Germany, Senegal, and Uruguay, as well as the group stage opener against Paraguay.
“For us [Wednesday] is—because we don’t have another opportunity if we fail—it’s all in, and knowing that that game is the final of the World Cup, and if we are capable to go through, the next one is going to be another final of the World Cup. That, I think, [needs] to be, and is, our mindset and our mentality,” he said.
