The group stage is something you have to do but the World Cup starts here, Lamine Yamal had insisted, and down on the Pacific that was how it played out. It wasn’t just that Spain defeated Austria to reach the last 16 against Portugal or Croatia, their first victory at the knockout stage since they were champions in 2010; it was that on an enjoyable sunny afternoon they were Spain again. Two goals from Mikel Oyarzabal and another from Pedro Porro completed a 3-0 win that was as recognisably theirs as their coach had requested beforehand. “Almost perfect,” Luis de la Fuente called it afterwards.For the fourth consecutive game Spain kept a clean sheet, Unai Simón breaking Iker Casillas’s 2010 title-winning record while Pau Cubarsí and Aymeric Laporte confirmed their status as the centre-back partnership of the tournament so far, but what really stood out was what was happening either side and in front of them. Continue reading...