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to have been done at half-time, when Spain led 2-0 after Rodrigo Hernandez had added the second and Lamine Yamal was withdrawn, his show seemingly over, the danger returned.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.
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