{"id":5724,"date":"2026-06-26T21:21:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=5724"},"modified":"2026-06-26T21:21:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:21:32","slug":"world-cup-2026-why-theres-more-to-spain-than-lamine-yamal-cesar-azpilicueta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=5724","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Why there&#8217;s more to Spain than Lamine Yamal &#8211; Cesar Azpilicueta"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">I have heard people say that Spain are missing a really elite number nine but with Oyarzabal, we have someone who we know can score the big goals, when it matters. We appreciate him, even if he is not seen as a superstar by others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He used to play more on the wing but in the past couple of years he has transitioned more into a striker who can go in both directions, making runs past defenders or dropping deeper to link play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Oyarzabal is also still able to go wide when needed, finding the spaces left when teams are attracted to Yamal, and his movement and intelligence makes him so effective. He is doing a great job.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After two goals and an assist in the first half against Saudi Arabia he will be full of confidence, and I like our other options up front too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ferran Torres was not as clinical when he came on for Oyarzabal in that game but I still feel he is in good form, while Borja Iglesias offers a different kind of striker profile.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Iglesias is someone people might know a little bit less, because he does not play in the Champions League with Celta Vigo, but if you&#8217;ve seen him you will understand why he is important for the squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He is someone who can be a bit more of a target-man, occupying the centre-backs. He has not been used yet at this World Cup but I am sure at some point there will be a game where Spain will need his qualities, depending on the opposition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">I know exactly what I am talking about because I had to mark him during my last match as a professional, less than a month ago in Vigo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have heard people say that Spain are missing a really elite number nine but with Oyarzabal, we have someone&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}