Oyazarbal’s nets hat-trick in Spain’s big win on over Kosovo

Real Sociedad’s Mikel Oyazarbal was only a second-half substitute but he managed to get a hat-trick to help Spain dispatch Andorra 5-0 in an international friendly on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old only scored nine goals and three assists in 33 La Liga games for Real Sociedad in the last season, but he managed one-third of those numbers in less than 45 minutes on Wednesday.

With a place in Spain’s Euro 2024 squad up for grabs, the midfielder took advantage of a disappointing first half where the Spaniards only managed a single goal through Real Betis’s Ayoze Perez in the 24th minute.

The game is the former Newcastle forward’s debut for the Spanish national team, and he lasted the whole 90 minutes despite starting alongside Alvaro Morata and Pau Torres upfront.

Spain’s head coach, Luis De La Fuentes, will select his final squad on Friday, and it wasn’t a surprise that he experimented heavily against Andorra as they got their first win in three friendly games.

Oyazarbal’s first goal of the game came in the 53 minutes and he made it two goals thirteen minutes later and by the 73rd minute he had completed his hat-trick although Ferran Torres was on hand to make it 5-0 on the night.

Spain’s last international friendly game before jetting out to Germany for the Euros is against Northern Ireland at the weekend. La Roja who won euro 2008 and 2012 will face a a tough group that has Croatia, Albania and defending champions Italy who won the last Euros at Wembley in 2021 after defeating England on penalties.

In other friendlies on Wednesday evening Belgium defeated Montenegro by 2-0 while France defeated Luxembourg in a 3-0 victory. Manchester City forward Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick in Norway’s 3-0 victory over Kosovo although neither of the two teams will be at the Euros.