Spain vs Austria FIFA World Cup 2026 Preview: Everything you need to know

World Cup - Final Stage

Los Angeles Stadium

Spain vs Austria will kick off on 2 Jul 2026 at 15:00 EST and 20:00 GMT.

2010 champions Spain take on Austria in the World Cup Round of 32

2010 World champions Spain are red-hot favourites to advance to the round of 16 against an Austria side making its first World Cup appearance since 1998 and aiming to reach the knockout rounds for the first time in the modern era. The reward for the winners is a round of 16 meeting with either Portugal or Croatia.

Getty Images

How Spain and Austria got here

Luis De La Fuente's Spain side is living up to the billing as one of the pre-tournament favourites. They're yet to concede, with a 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia and a 1-0 success against Uruguay. A 0-0 draw against minnows Cabo Verde was a surprise, but also a sign of other shocks to come at this fascinating showpiece. Amazingly, none of the winners from 2006, 2010 and 2014 (Italy, Spain and Germany) have won a knockout match since winning the World Cup. La Roja will be desperate to buck this trend.

Getty Images

Austria ends a 72-year wait

Austria's path to this stage was surprisingly dramatic. On the final day of Group J, everyone expected a dead rubber of a contest between them and Algeria. It was anything but, as a thrilling 3-3 draw played out. If it weren't for Sasa Kalajdzic's 94th-minute headed equaliser, Austria would have been eliminated from the World Cup. A 3-1 win over Jordan and a 2-0 defeat to Argentina in their other matches illustrate how much of a mixed bag this has been. They're into the knockouts of a World Cup for the first time since 1954.

Getty Images

Spain relies on the Barcelona influence, cohesion and Yamal

Barcelona's teenage superstar Lamine Yamal's minutes have been managed carefully. He played just 19 minutes against Cape Verde, then 45 minutes against Saudi Arabia, where he also scored, then 76 minutes against Uruguay. 23-year-old Athletic Bilbao winger Nico Williams won't be risked after aggravating an existing injury against Uruguay, so Yamal might be needed from the start here. The Barcelona superstar is one of eight Barca players in Spain's 26-man squad.

Getty Images

Austria turns to their veterans

Everything revolves around Marcel Sabitzer, with the Dortmund man winning his 100th Austria cap against Argentina. The former RB Leipzig schemer is central to everything that Ralf Rangnick's team does, and he'll be supported by fellow veteran Marko Arnautovic, a man with 134 caps to his name.

Getty Images

Likely XIs

Spain (4-3-3)

Unai Simón; Pedro Porro, Pau Cubarsí, Aymeric Laporte, Marc Cucurella; Rodri, Pedri, Fabián Ruiz; Lamine Yamal, Mikel Oyarzabal, Mikel Merino.

Austria (4-2-3-1)

Patrick Pentz; Stefan Posch, Kevin Danso, Philipp Lienhart, Phillipp Mwene; Nicolas Seiwald, Xaver Schlager; Patrick Wimmer, Marcel Sabitzer, Romano Schmid; Marko Arnautovic.

Key stats & danger men

• Real Sociedad stalwart Mikel Oyarzabal has directly contributed to three of Spain’s five goals at this tournament (G2, A1) and has contributed to 22 goals in his last 15 starts.
• Five of Austria’s last six matches featured more goals after half-time than before.
• Austria's run of 12 World Cup fixtures without a clean sheet dates back to 1982.

Getty Images

Spain's 26-man squad

Goalkeepers: Unai Simón (Athletic Bilbao), David Raya (Arsenal), Joan Garcia (Barcelona).

Defenders: Marcos Llorente (Atlético Madrid), Marc Pubill (Atlético Madrid), Pedro Porro (Tottenham), Aymeric Laporte (Athletic Bilbao), Eric García (Barcelona), Pau Cubarsi (Barcelona), Marc Cucurella (Real Madrid), Alejandro Grimaldo (Bayer Leverkusen).

Midfielders: Rodri (Manchester City), Martin Zubimendi (Arsenal), Mikel Merino (Arsenal), Pedri (Barcelona), Gavi (Barcelona), Fabian Ruiz (Paris St-Germain), Alex Baena (Atletico Madrid).

Forwards: Yeremy Pino (Crystal Palace), Victor Muñoz (Osasuna), Mikel Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad), Ferran Torres (Barcelona), Lamine Yamal (Barcelona), Dani Olmo (Barcelona), Nico Williams (Athletic Bilbao), Borja Iglesias (Celta Vigo).

Getty Images

Austria's 26-man squad

Goalkeepers: Patrick Pentz (Brondby), Alexander Schlager (RB Salzburg), Florian Wiegele (Viktoria Plzen).

Defenders: David Affengruber (Elche), David Alaba (Real Madrid), Kevin Danso (Tottenham), Marco Friedl (Werder Bremen), Philipp Lienhart (Freiburg), Phillipp Mwene (Mainz), Stefan Posch (Mainz), Alexander Prass (Hoffenheim), Michael Svoboda (Venezia).

Midfielders: Christoph Baumgartner (RB Leipzig), Carney Chukwuemeka (Borussia Dortmund), Florian Grillitsch (Braga), Konrad Laimer (Bayern Munich), Marcel Sabitzer (Borussia Dortmund), Xaver Schlager (RB Leipzig), Romano Schmid (Werder Bremen), Alessandro Schopf (RZ Pellets WAC), Nicolas Seiwald (RB Leipzig), Paul Wanner (PSV Eindhoven), Patrick Wimmer (Wolfsburg).

Forwards: Marko Arnautovic (Red Star Belgrade), Michael Gregoritsch (Augsburg), Sasa Kalajdzic (LASK).

Getty Images

Team news & squads

Spain vs Austria Probable lineups

Spain

ESP

Formation

Austria

AUT

Austria

AUT

Manager

• L. de la Fuente

Luis de la Fuente has not confirmed a probable starting XI, and no specific injuries or suspensions have been listed for Spain ahead of this fixture. Updates will be added closer to kick-off as the squad picture becomes clearer.

Ralf Rangnick is similarly yet to confirm his projected XI for Austria, with no injury or suspension information currently available. Further team news will be published as it emerges.

Form

Spain head into this fixture with a record of three wins and two draws from their last five matches. Their most recent outing was a 1-0 win over Uruguay in the World Cup group stage, with Alex Baena's goal proving decisive. Earlier in the group stage, Spain were particularly dominant against Saudi Arabia, winning 4-0. Across those five games, Spain have scored nine goals and conceded two, keeping two clean sheets and showing consistency at both ends of the pitch.

Head-to-Head Record

ESP

Last 3 matches

AUT

2

Wins

1

Draw

0

Wins

• Austria

  1

  -

  5

  Spain

• Spain

  4

  -

  0

  Austria

• Austria

  1

  -

  1

  Spain

10

Goals scored

2

Games over 2.5 goals

2/3

Both teams scored

2/3

The most recent meeting between these two sides came in a friendly in November 2009, when Spain ran out 5-1 winners with Austria as the host nation. Before that, Spain beat Austria 4-0 in a World Cup qualification match in September 2001, played on Spanish soil. The only draw in the three recorded meetings came in October 2000, when Austria and Spain played out a 1-1 stalemate in Vienna during the same qualification campaign. Across these three fixtures, Spain have won twice and drawn once, scoring ten goals to Austria's three.

Standings

Spain finished first in Group H, while Austria qualified from Group J in second place.