Spain winger Lamine Yamal says the FIFA World Cup remains his sole focus, downplaying any worries about his relatively low goal return as La Roja prepare for the next stage after reaching the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old made the comments following Spain\u2019s 2-1 quarter-final win over Belgium in Los Angeles, a tense contest that booked a spot in a highly anticipated last-four meeting with France.<\/p>\n
Yamal has scored once at the tournament, finding the net during Spain\u2019s 4-0 group-stage victory over Saudi Arabia. That modest tally has caught some observers off guard, especially given the impact he produced for Barcelona, where he emerged as one of Europe\u2019s most exciting young talents. After a standout season marked by goals, assists and decisive performances, expectations were high that he would reproduce that kind of attacking momentum on the World Cup stage.<\/p>\n
But the Barcelona forward argues that his value to the team cannot be measured purely by personal statistics.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously I want to score, but I don\u2019t go onto the pitch thinking about that. I do it thinking about helping the team,\u201d Yamal said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we win the World Cup, no one will remember whether I scored goals. The important thing is winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also pointed to the wider effect of his game\u2014his movement and the way he draws defenders\u2014which can open space for teammates, allowing Spain to keep threatening even when he isn\u2019t the player finishing chances.<\/p>\n
Yamal further rejected talk of comparisons with his UEFA Euro 2024 run, where he scored only once but still played a key role in Spain\u2019s title-winning campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spain winger Lamine Yamal says the FIFA World Cup remains his sole focus, downplaying any worries about his relatively low goal return as La Roja prepare for the next stage after reaching the semi-finals. The 18-year-old made the comments following Spain\u2019s 2-1 quarter-final win over Belgium in Los Angeles, a tense contest that booked a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_title":"Lamine Yamal Spain World Cup Semi-Final vs France","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Spain\u2019s Lamine Yamal plays down his goal drought, insisting the World Cup is all that matters as La Roja gear up for a semi-final ","mma_seo_breadcrumb_text":"","mma_seo_breadcrumb_url":"","mma_seo_breadcrumb_hide_ui":"","mma_seo_breadcrumb_labels":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n