Spain vs Austria
Competition/Round: 2026 World Cup, Round of 32
Spain Outs & Doubts: Yeremi Pino, Nico Williams (out), Victor Muñoz (doubt)
Austria Outs & Doubts: None
Date/Time: Thursday, July 2, 2026, 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 9pm CET (Barcelona), 8pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 12.30am IST (India, Friday)
Venue: SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles, United States
Referee: Glenn Nyberg (SWE)
How to watch on TV: FOX (USA), BBC One (UK), United8 Sports 1 (India), SuperSport (Nigeria), TVE La 1 (Spain), others
*How to watch online*: FuboTV (USA), BBC iPlayer (UK), ZEE5 (India), DAZN (Spain), others
Following a goalless draw against Uruguay to clinch top spot in Group H, Spain travel to Los Angeles to begin their journey in the World Cup 2026 knockout stages with a Round of 32 clash against fellow European rivals Austria at SoFi Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
La Roja come into this one looking to book a spot in the Round of 16, and they’ll be facing an Austria side that almost found themselves out of the World Cup in the group stage finale against Algeria before a 96th minute equalizer made sure of a place in the knockouts in dramatic fashion.
Ralf Rangnick’s team haven’t played their best stuff yet, but they are a very awkward opponent for Spain: Austria like to press high, have a ton of pace and skill all over the lineup, and are not afraid to play intense, attack-minded football against anyone.
Spain forgot how to play football in their last game against Uruguay and had a very concerning performance, but there is still optimism they will be able to discover their best version in time to compete in the knockouts. Lamine Yamal had more minutes under his belt in the group finale and will hopefully look less rusty and more match-ready this time around, but the entire team around him needs to play much better if Spain want to win this one.
World Cup knockout football has not been kind to Spain outside of their 2010 success in South Africa, and Austria are the perfect kind of opponent who can catch La Roja off guard if they are not at it from the start. This needs to be a complete game from a team still in search of a great performance that will truly announce them as contenders.
The Round of 32 has already given us plenty of reasons to believe no game is ever over and no opponent is easy (except Sweden), and a huge upset is right around the corner (bye, Germany). Spain cannot take any second of this for granted.
Let’s dance.
(Be careful, Lamine.)
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Spain (4-2-3-1): Simón; Porro, Cubarsí, Laporte, Cucurella; Rodri, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Baena; Oyarzabal
Austria (4-2-3-1): Schlager; Posch, Lienhart, Alaba, Mwene; Seiwald, Schlager; Schmid, Laimer, Sabitzer; Arnautovic
PREDICTION
Despite their big favorite status for this tournament, history says Spain don’t actually perform well in World Cup knockout football. There is no chance this will be a cakewalk, and they’ll need to dig deep to find the right formula to win and advance. I expect a tense game that might go all the way to penalties, but I’m picking La Roja to win this in 90 minutes: 2-1 Spain.