Spain Overview

Spain sensation Lamine Yamal has been warned that he still has plenty to prove on the international stage despite his meteoric rise at Barcelona. Argentina legend Mario Kempes has challenged the teenager to replicate his club form at the World Cup if he wants to be considered a true superstar of the game.

The group stage of the 2026 World Cup came to a dramatic conclusion on Saturday, as Austria scored a 96th-minute equaliser against Algeria to qualify for the knockout stage while simultaneously eliminating Iran, who had been set to progress as one of the tournament's third-placed finishers. Elsewhere, Lionel Messi came off the bench to help Argentina maintain their 100 percent winning record with a 3-1 victory over Jordan and, in doing so, the No.10 extended his record-breaking goals tally at the finals to 19.

Four nations made debuts at the 2026 World Cup, with Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan gracing the grandest stage in international football for the first time. It is the tournament with the most newcomers since 2006 and Cape Verde have achieved the feat of ending a 16-year wait for a debutant to reach the knockout stages, with the African nation to face Lionel Messi's Argentina on Friday.

The group stages of the 2026 World Cup are in the books after a thrilling fortnight of action across the United States, Mexico and Canada. Despite a lack of eye-catching fixtures on paper in the new, expanded format, there has been drama aplenty, with all the big names showing up for their respective countries on football's biggest stage.