Turkiye 0-6 Spain

Much of the talk in the lead up to Spain’s clash with Turkiye centred around the virile atmosphere awaiting La Roja, with the home side moving the game to Konya for a more intense backing from their crowd. Spain quickly dismantled the theory it would play a part, almost as swiftly as the Turkish defence.

TEAM NEWS

🇪🇸 Spain go with the same team that started against Bulgaria, meaning Le Normand and Oyarzabal keep their places, and Rodri and Carvajal are on the bench. Lamine Yamal is deemed fit.

🇹🇷Plenty of talent on the other side, with Guler, Yildiz, Akturtoglu and Calhanoglu.

— Football España (@footballespana_) September 7, 2025

Just as against Bulgaria, it took Spain only five minutes to break through the defence. Pedri was found on the inside left position, and after dummying Hakan Calhanoglu out the way, whipped the ball into the bottom corner from outside the box. Already La Roja were finding space and looking finely tuned, and in the 24th minute, a ball from the left from Marc Cucurella found Nico Williams, who touched to Mikel Oyarzabal, and then onto Mikel Merino to fire home again.

Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams would pass up golden opportunities, an open goal in the case of the former, before Merino added a third, after a beautiful move between Pedri, Ferran Torres and Oyarzabal. The one negative note for La Roja from the match was an injury to Williams, who left shortly before the break holding his groin, to be replaced by Torres. Kenan Yildiz had forced Unai Simon into a couple of saves, but their best attacks were ruled offside.

Spain begin to tear through remaining Turkish defence

As Turkiye pursued a goal in the second half, Spain only looked more and more confident, as they purred on the break. Less than ten minutes into the second period, Torres won a header in the Spain half, with Turkiye forward for a corner. Pedri was onto the loose ball and drove at the Turkish defence, laying it right to Lamine Yamal, who only had to nudge it to Ferran Torres to finish in the box.

Olió sangre y… ÑAM.

🇹🇷 🆚 🇪🇸 | 0-6 | 74'#VamosEspaña | #CopaMundialFIFA

— Selección Española Masculina de Fútbol (@SEFutbol) September 7, 2025

Another break upfield seemed to lose momentum, but when Lamine Yamal found Merino in space in front of the box, he was not closed down, and decided to curl a brilliant effort into the top corner for his hat-trick. Five minutes later, Pedri rounded off a 10-minute destruction in the second half. Oyarzabal jinked past two players before stretching to send Pedri clear of the defence. The Barcelona man found the bottom corner with consummate ease to make it 6-0 with 26 minutes to go. The final point of note was a debut for Jorge de Frutos.

Turkiye had more of the ball in the second half as Spain waited for their chances on the break, but rarely did Simon’s goal come under threat. Luis de la Fuente’s side put on a choral display that will live long in the memory for its football and finishing. Each goal was aesthetich, and Spain showed they were just as comfortable playing against a packed defence as on the break. Spain go top of their group with two wins and goal difference of nine – but much more importantly, the feeling that this group are capable of something special.