Pau Cubarsí Shines as Spain Advances in World Cup 2024

Luis de la Fuente insisted last summer that Pau Cubarsí’s omission from Euro 2024 had nothing to do with age. He said he simply had four centre-backs he rated higher at the time.

That hierarchy has been ripped up in North America. Right now, there are not many defenders at this World Cup operating on Cubarsí’s level. If any.

Spain have glided into the quarter-finals without conceding a goal, and that spotless record belongs to the collective. Mikel Oyarzabal sets the tone by harassing centre-backs, Rodri screens the defence with his usual icy authority, and the back five have moved almost as a single organism.

Marc Cucurella is already justifying the €60 million Real Madrid have wired to Chelsea, snapping into duels and giving Spain thrust on the left. Unai Simón, under constant scrutiny with David Raya and Joan García behind him, has responded with five straight clean sheets. Aymeric Laporte, at 32, looks as composed as at any point in his career. Pedro Porro, so often chaotic for Tottenham, has been unrecognisable in a Spain shirt: disciplined, sharp, reliable.

Yet Cubarsí keeps drawing the eye.

The 19-year-old has walked into the World Cup as if it were another night at Montjuïc. Perhaps it should not shock anyone. He has been a regular for Barcelona since 17, hailed by Xavi as “an era-defining player” and tipped by Carles Puyol to be the club’s leading centre-back for the next decade and a half.

Cubarsí himself insists he feels no pressure on the pitch. That may be true. It does not make what he is doing any less remarkable.

From a pure defensive standpoint, he has barely made a wrong move. His anticipation closes doors before attackers even see them. His timing in the tackle is clean, his positioning mature. Next to him, Laporte has been the perfect foil, the veteran voice in his ear when the tempo spikes.

“At crucial moments, a player like Laporte brings that experience Cuba needs alongside him, and they complement each other fantastically,” De la Fuente said. “We’ve achieved a phenomenal balance in the centre of defence.”

The balance is not just about stopping attacks. With Cubarsí, Spain essentially field another playmaker in the first line. A La Masia graduate raised on the art of building from the back, he steps into midfield, splits lines, and dictates rhythm. Only Rodri has completed more passes at this World Cup. That statistic tells its own story.

De la Fuente trusts him completely. Cubarsí is one of only four players in the squad to have played every minute of Spain’s campaign. For a teenager at a World Cup, that is not rotation. That is status.

On the other side of the pitch, the narrative around Lamine Yamal feels very different, but just as dangerous for Spain’s opponents.

His World Cup almost never started. A hamstring injury cut short his 2025-26 season with Barcelona and cast real doubt over his involvement in the tournament. He missed both warm-up games and only appeared for 19 minutes in the jarring 0-0 draw with Cape Verde, a tentative cameo rather than a statement.

Then came the 4-0 demolition of Saudi Arabia in Atlanta. Yamal started, scored the opener, and transformed Spain’s attack. The pitch suddenly looked wider, the passing lanes sharper. With him on the right, La Roja had a new dimension: the threat that something could happen every time he took on his full-back.

Since then, the story has been more nuanced. His dribbling lit up the round-of-32 rout of Austria, a match that entered the record books as Spain became the first team since 1958 to start two teenagers in a World Cup knockout tie. Yet against Portugal, he ran into an old problem. Nuno Mendes, his nemesis, once again managed to blunt him in Spain’s tight 1-0 win.

So here they are, on the brink of a quarter-final with Belgium, and the most feared winger in world football is still waiting for his first assist of the tournament. Five chances created. No final ball yet to match the hype.

Yamal knows it. And he is utterly unfazed.

“I’m very demanding of myself,” he told Mundo Deportivo. “I’m never satisfied with what I’m doing. Besides that, I just need to keep playing. I was out for almost two months, and it’s not the same as when you’ve already played seven games in a row.

“Keep touching the ball, keep playing, keep adding minutes and, obviously, that [big] match will come. In the end, people remember these moments, from the round of 16 and the quarter-finals onwards. That’s when I’m most motivated.

“I’ve taken this whole process calmly so I can arrive at this point in good shape. I feel great, eager to show what we are as Spain and what I am.

“I’ve never been the best player in the group stage. The closer the important matches get, the semi-finals or the final, the better I play.”

Those are not the words of a teenager intimidated by the stage. They sound more like a warning.

Spain already know this script. At Euro 2024, Yamal saved his best for the sharp end of the tournament, stepping up when the pressure tightened and the margins shrank. His ability to bend big games to his will helped deliver that trophy.

Now De la Fuente arrives in the World Cup quarter-finals with something even more ominous: Yamal again edging towards his peak, and behind him an “era-defining” defender calmly running the back line.

If the winger catches fire just as the centre-back continues to play like a veteran, who exactly is going to stop this Spain?