Overview
Spain enters the round of 32 of the 2026 World Cup with great confidence when facing Austria at Los Angeles stadium. They will aim for the goal of winning their first victory in the World Cup knockout round after 16 years.
La Roja won the top spot in Group H after a 1-0 victory over Uruguay in the last match, thanks to Alex Baena's decisive goal.
Although they once impressed with a 4-0 victory over Saudi Arabia, coach Luis de la Fuente's team has not yet recreated the coherent playing style that helped them dominate EURO 2024. The goalless draw against Cabo Verde is a clear proof of Spain's instability in this tournament.
In fact, La Roja has not won a knockout match at the World Cup since Andres Iniesta scored in extra time, helping them defeat the Netherlands 1-0 in the 2010 final to win the world championship for the first time.
Since then, Spain has continuously disappointed. They were eliminated in a penalty shootout against Russia in the round of 16 of the 2018 World Cup and continued to fall to Morocco in a similar scenario at the 2022 World Cup.
The bullfighting team has never lost 3 consecutive knockout matches at the World Cup, and De la Fuente is determined not to let that scenario happen.
However, statistics show that Spain often faces many difficulties when facing European teams in the knockout rounds. In the last 7 World Cup knockout matches against opponents from the same continent, they only scored one goal. That was the goal in the 1-1 draw with Russia in 2018 before being eliminated on penalties.
Meanwhile, the last time Austria participated in this stage was at the 1954 World Cup. At that time, they defeated Switzerland 7-5 in a match with the highest total goals in World Cup history, before winning third place overall after losing to West Germany in the semi-finals.
Austria is also no stranger to confrontations with European representatives in the knockout rounds. In the previous five appearances (excluding the third-place match), they won 3 matches against France, Hungary and Switzerland, and lost to Italy and West Germany.
However, coach Ralf Rangnick's task will not be easy when Spain possesses a very solid defense. La Roja has kept a clean sheet in 4 consecutive matches at the World Cup, their longest streak since the 2010 championship journey.
Head-to-head record
The two teams do not often face each other, but their head-to-head history is clearly leaning towards Spain. La Roja is unbeaten in the last 5 encounters with Austria, with 4 wins and 1 draw, and has won both recent encounters with a 4-goal difference.
The most recent meeting between the two teams took place in 2009 in Vienna, when Spain won a 5-1 victory.
However, Spain still has reason to be cautious. In the only encounter between the two teams at the World Cup, La Roja lost to Austria 1-2 in the group stage of the 1978 tournament. This is also the only victory of the Central European representative against Spain in their head-to-head history.
Score prediction: Spain 2-0 Austria
The match between Spain and Austria takes place at 2:00 AM on July 3rd (Vietnam time).
