Former winners Spain took a massive step towards qualifying for the 2026 World Cup with a convincing victory in Georgia.
Luis de la Fuente’s side are three points clear with one match remaining in Group E and only a seven-goal loss at home to second-placed Turkey on Tuesday will deny Spain automatic qualification.
Spain, the 2010 world champions, continued their dominant qualifying campaign and only needed 11 minutes before they scored their first goal in Tbilisi, thanks to Mikel Oyarzabal’s penalty following a handball from Giorgi Gocholeishvili.
Arsenal midfielder Martin Zubimendi doubled Spain’s lead 11 minutes later by lifting the ball past Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, with former Manchester City striker Ferran Torres adding a third before half-time from Oyarzabal’s pass.
Torres then provided a curling cross in the 63rd minute which was headed in by Oyarzabal for his second goal and Spain’s fourth.
Spain, top of Fifa’s world rankings, have won all five of their qualifiers, scoring 19 goals in the process and without conceding.
They would have secured automatic qualification if Turkey had dropped points against Bulgaria, but Hakan Calhanoglu’s penalty and Atanas Chernev’s own goal gave Turkey a 2-0 win.
But, with a goal difference 14 worse than Spain’s, Turkey need to win by a seven-goal margin in Sevilla on Tuesday to deny the Spanish automatic qualification for next summer’s tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
