Lamine Yamal says he feels like Superman or Spider-Man sometimes, and Spain’s fans are starting to wonder if he just might be. There is something comic book hero about what the teenager is doing right now, some unexplained super power swelling inside him. For the third consecutive game he scored inside six minutes, curling in another outrageous goal as Spain completed their World Cup homecoming in Oviedo with a 3-1 win over Czechia that leaves them a single point from the Nations League quarter finals already.
Spain’s manager, Luis de la Fuente, put it simply: “Lamine Yamal is on course to become a legend.” And yet in a game which seemed to have been done at half-time, when Spain led 2-0 after Rodrigo Hernandez had added the second and Lamine Yamal was withdrawn, his show seemingly over, the danger returned. Czechia, vastly improved after the break, pulled one back through Jiri Slama on 69 and then were denied a 79th-minute equaliser when Vassilis Fotias, the referee, who rescued Spain, harshly ruled out a Ryan Naderi goal – apparently for a foul on Robin Le Normand as the free-kick that led to it was swung in. Reduced to ten men soon after, still furious, Czechia finally fell with two minutes left when Mikel Merino made Spain safe.
The seleccion’s first visit to the Carlos Tartiere in eleven years had ended the way they had hoped. Welcomed back as World and European champions once more, they were applauded off as winners again. A night that had begun with Rodri being presented with the World Cup by Santi Cazorla and Juan Mata, academy products at Real Oviedo and members of the generation to which all others would forever be compared, ended with a jeopardy no one anticipated when it started in a way that has become implausibly, absurdly familiar.
Lamine Yamal had scored after just 104 seconds at Wembley and 70 in Seville, as Spain defeated England and Croatia. And the silly thing was that here, his goal might have come even sooner. Fifteen seconds in, the first frisson of excitement went round this place as he chased down the goalkeeper and after just fifty-seven Oviedo almost exploded.
But, running on to a Dani Olmo pass, Lamine Yamal calmly guided a shot past the goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky … and past the post. He would just have to wait until the sixth minute was up instead. Playing a quick one-two with Dani Olmo, Lamine Yamal took possession on the top right corner of the area and curled another outrageous shot into the far corner, the ridiculous becoming routine.
They had been playing five minutes 20 seconds, another stadium letting out a roar that spoke of delight but also a kind of disbelief. 320 seconds he had been out there, taking him to 494 seconds to score three. Spain weren’t hurrying but they were controlling, and the chances were accumulating: by half-time they had taken thirteen shots to one, and enjoyed 70% of possession. They had also added a second on 32 minutes.
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