Spain traveled to Georgia without young star Lamine Yamal and many other pillars such as Rodri, Dani Carvajal or Nico Williams. However, with the remaining force, La Roja still easily overwhelmed the home team.
Under great pressure from Spain, Gocholeishvili let the ball touch his hand after Ferran Torres' shot, bringing an early penalty to the away team. Mikel Oyarzabal took a cold turn, scoring his 20th goal for Spain and also La Roja's 100th under Luis de la Fuente.
After the opening goal, Spain completely dominated the match. Alex Baena's shot hit the post, before Fabian Ruiz took a delicate pass for Martin Zubimendi to run down and finish neatly, raising the score to 2-0 in the 22nd minute.
Oyarzabal continued to leave his mark when he assisted Ferran Torres to finish close to the goal, raising the score to 3-0. In the 63rd minute, the Real Sociedad striker completed a double with a dangerous header from Torres' cross, ending an easy victory for Spain.
This defeat caused coach will Sagnol's team to officially lose the chance to participate in the play-off, and at the same time ended their dream of participating in a World Cup for the first time.
On the contrary, Spain continued to show their superior strength when they won all 5 matches in Group E, scoring 19 goals and conceding no goals. Although not yet officially qualified, La Roja could hardly be surpassed by Turkey thanks to their superior goal difference. The two teams will face each other directly in the final match and the current gap is 3 points.
Results of some other notable matches in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Europe:
Liechtenstein 01 Welsh
Ciep 0'2 Island, Austria
Turkey 20 Bulgaria
Slovenia 02 Kosovo
Switzerland 41 Sweden
Bosnia & Herzegovina 31 Romania
Denmark 22 Belarus
Greece 32 Scotland
