I’ve not been that impressed with Uruguay so far and think they’re in real danger of an early exit, with Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia both still in contention of stealing second place from them if Uruguay fail to get all three points in this clash.

Spain have looked far more convincing than Uruguay in their opening matches, putting Saudi Arabia to the sword last time out with a comfortable 4-0 win. They looked very impressive in that victory as well and didn’t let the 0-0 draw with Cape Verde affect them. 

Uruguay have failed to beat both Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia, which are really games they should have won with the talent in the squad, so this looks like an uphill battle for Bielsa’s side, who will be under quite a bit of pressure here and will be keeping a keen eye on proceedings in Saudi Arabia v Cape Verde. 

Uruguay have failed to keep a clean sheet against both Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia so far, so I find it hard to justify making a case for them to keep Spain out here.

Uruguay have seen 2+ goals in four of their last five international matches, drawing each of their two World Cup games so far 1-1 and 2-2. Marcelo Bielsa’s side play with a lot of intensity, but also leave quite a few gaps with his approach, which can be exploited by a side like Spain. 

Spain may have been kept at bay by Cape Verde in their opening game, but they really should have scored at least twice with 27 shots and an xG of 2.10. They rectified this against Saudi Arabia, putting four goals past them in a comfortable victory. 

Lamine Yamal scored his first-ever goal at a World Cup in Spain’s easy win over Saudi Arabia last time out and took more shots than any other player (5), despite only playing in the first half of that game.

Yamal is such a dangerous player and has registered 18 goal contributions across just 27 caps for Spain, setting up three goals across his two starts during qualifying. He really enjoys this stage, as he showed at the last Euros, setting up four goals and scoring once across six starts as Spain lifted the trophy.

Yamal has improved his goal output since that tournament and is now just as much of a threat when it comes to scoring goals as he is setting them up. He registered 41 goal contributions across 45 appearances for Barcelona during the 25/26 campaign. 

Maxi Araujo has been Uruguay's best player at the World Cup so far, with Marcelo Bielsa deploying the Sporting player in a more advanced role down the left-hand side to great success.

Araujo has scored in both of Uruguay’s games so far, playing in this role, taking two shots in both matches against Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia. He wasn’t playing as high up as he currently is during qualifying, but still managed to register 14 shots across his 14 starts (1.07 per 90).

Araujo plays his club football for Sporting, usually operating as a wingback, and enjoyed a strong campaign during the 25/26 season - registering nine goal contributions across 25 starts and taking 39 shots across these games (1.58 per 90). 

I get frustrated with Rodrigo Bentancur quite often, as it’s very clear that he can play to a much higher level, especially when it comes to dictating play, which is a criticism that has been levelled at him by previous managers, most recently Thomas Frank at Tottenham.

Bielsa also sees Bentancur in this way; he completed the most dribbles of any player in both of Uruguay’s matches so far and has also been fouled in both of these games. He’s seeing a lot of the ball (85.5 touches per 90) and holds his own in individual duels with a win rate of 56% across 14 duels at the tournament so far.

Bentancur started eight games for Uruguay during qualifying, winning eight fouls across these games (0.98 per 90). He’ll be up against a Spanish midfield that will match the intensity and tenacity of Bentancur in what should be an entertaining midfield battle.