Who Will Spain Face In RO16

Who Will Spain Face In RO16?

Aishik Das

Published - Jul 02, 2026, 09:32 PM

3 min

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Summary

Spain defeated Austria by a scoreline of 3-0 to book their tickets to the Round of 16.
They will face the winner of Portugal vs Croatia in the next round.
This is the 11th time that Spain have reached the Round of 16 phase of the World Cup.

Spain sealed their spot in the Round of 16 of the FIFA World Cup 2026 with a commanding win against Ralf Rangnick's Austria. The Round of 32 fixture was utterly dominated by La Roja, who didn't let Das Team get even a sniff at the goal.

The Spain national football team started strongly with a goal from Mikel Oyarzabal in the 36th minute. Pedro Porro doubled the lead with a header in the 66th minute, assisted by Alex Baena, while Oyarzabal added the third for his team in the 89th minute to put the game beyond Austria's reach.

This is the 11th time that the Spanish football team have registered their name in the Round of 16 stage of the global gathering event, and are yet to know who they will play next. Sportsdunia explores who will Spain face in Round of 16, with another blockbuster game coming up in this FIFA World Cup.

Who Will Spain Face In RO16?

Given the current scenario, the answer to the ‘who will Spain face in Round of 16?’ question lies entirely on the outcome of the game between the Portugal national football team and Croatia. The 2025 UEFA Nations League winners and the 2018 World Cup Runners-Up are set to battle it out on the big stage in the very next game of the Round of 32.

Portugal and Croatia both finished second in the table, and therefore setup a encounter which would see any one of the greatest Real Madrid players of all time play their last international game probably. This makes the matchup even more interesting.

Spain faced Ronaldo and co. in the recent Nations League final, where they went on to lose on penalties. They will be looking for revenge if Portugal manage to beat Croatia. On the other hand, the Croatia national football team haven't been at their best in this World Cup despite their final group stage game win against Ghana, but they have had a knack of upsetting the odds for quite some time now.

Whoever Luis de La Fuente's men face, one thing can be guaranteed that fans will be glued to their seats due to the brand of football on display in that particular Spain round of 16 fixture.