Match report
Lamine Yamal double powers Spain past Croatia in Nations League
Spain beat Croatia 4-1 at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán in a UEFA Nations League League A fixture, moving to the top of their group with maximum points from two matches. The five-goal contest was settled by a dominant attacking display from the hosts, who led at half-time and never looked troubled thereafter.
AI-assisted match report written from official match data.
Lamine Yamal set the tone inside two minutes, finishing from an assist by Álex Baena. Croatia responded through Dion Beljo, teed up by Ivan Perišić, to level at 1-1 in the 28th minute, but Marc Pubill restored the lead three minutes later, converting a Yamal assist to make it 2-1 at the break. Spain led 2-1 at half-time and controlled the second period.
Yamal added his second in the 63rd minute, receiving from Pedri to put Spain 3-1 ahead, before Nico Williams completed the scoring in the 89th minute with an assist from Mikel Merino, sealing the 4-1 win. Croatia's Perišić and Beljo had briefly threatened a way back, but the gap proved too wide to close.
Spain's control of possession and territory was reflected across the match, with the hosts registering far more shots and corners than their opponents, while Croatia picked up four yellow cards to Spain's one.
Lamine Yamal scored twice and set up another for Pubill, earning the highest rating on the pitch at 9.4.
Spain dominated possession with 64% of the ball compared to Croatia's 36%.
Spain beat Croatia 4–1 (half-time 2–1).
Spain met Croatia in the UEFA Nations League (League A - 2). Kick-off was Tuesday, 29 September 2026, 18:45 UTC at Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán. Referee: Serdar Gozubuyuk.
Team pages: Spain · Croatia · UEFA Nations League
Key moments
- 2' Goal: Lamine Yamal (assist: Álex Baena) — 1–0
- 28' Goal: Dion Beljo (assist: Ivan Perišić) — 1–1 · Watch Dion Beljo's goal video (28')
- 31' Goal: Marc Pubill (assist: Lamine Yamal) — 2–1
- 63' Goal: Lamine Yamal (assist: Pedri) — 3–1
- 89' Goal: Nico Williams (assist: Mikel Merino) — 4–1
Starting line-ups
Spain (4-3-3)
- 23 Unai Simón (c)
- 22 Marc Cucurella
- 2 Dean Huijsen
- 5 Pau Cubarsí
- 12 Marc Pubill
- 8 Fabián Ruiz
- 18 Martín Zubimendi
- 9 Fermín
- 15 Álex Baena
- 21 Mikel Oyarzabal
- 19 Lamine Yamal
Croatia (4-2-3-1)
Sirius · Why these numbers
Before kick-off Sirius gave Spain 72%, the draw 17%, Croatia 11%. It finished Spain 4–1 Croatia.
Spain's rating gap decides it — Spain are clearly the stronger side on our strength rating, and that is most of Spain's 72%. The draw at 17% is about what a gap this size usually leaves.
Why Spain at 72%?
Spain sit 270 points higher on our strength rating — 2173 to 1903. Sides with a more than 240-point rating edge at home won 79.2% of 5,544 such games. The 300 most similar past games finished 70–19–11.
Why not higher?
No scored evidence points the other way. 72% is what this rating gap has been worth in games like these; the rest is the draw at 17% and Croatia at 11%.
Why is the draw only 17%?
With a rating gap this size the draw starts at 17.5%. These teams' recent games average 2.8 goals — a typical goals environment. Games in that environment drew 24.7% of 25,157.
What did we measure but not count?
Croatia are 1 game into a new manager (S. Bilić), appointed 28 days ago. The famous new-manager bounce doesn't survive its receipt: sides with a new manager beat their rating by 0.9 points over 33,420 games — but sides on an equally bad run who kept their manager beat it by 2.4 over 31,777. Spain (22 fully-tracked matches with us) and Croatia (16) carry strength ratings anchored to the official international ratings list, so the class read stands on far more than our own short records. National sides play too few games for a record built from scratch, so their rating chain starts from the published international ratings instead of a blind first guess.
Sirius probabilities, frozen at kick-off. Analysis, not betting advice. How Sirius is doing this season · Full breakdown, evidence cards and squad news in the Match Insights tab
About this match
On this page: the Spain vs Croatia final score and result, goal highlights and video clips of every goal, who scored, starting lineups, match stats and the full match report from this UEFA Nations League fixture.
- Who scored and when — a goal-by-goal timeline of the match.
- Match stats — possession, shots, expected goals (xG), corners and cards.
- Starting lineups and player ratings for both teams.
- Head-to-head record and recent form for both sides.
Watch the goals: goal highlights and video clips of every goal from Spain 4–1 Croatia. Explore more on the Spain and Croatia team pages or the UEFA Nations League page.