We wrote it four days ago, half in jest: if Spain beat England by a single goal and then had to defend top spot on goal difference in Iceland, they had better start bracing themselves in Reykjavík, because on Tuesday this side is capable of melting the glaciers. In the end there was no lead to protect with a calculator in hand —the 4-0 against England had already pocketed the head-to-head— but the glaciers melted all the same. Six-one. Just in case there was any doubt about who that calculator was being read to.
Because that is the story that really closes out the week. For days a single sum was repeated on a loop —“Spain need to win by two”— as if it were a threat. A half-truth that, through sheer repetition, ended up looking like a legitimate worry. Spain’s answer to that worry was ten goals in four days and not a flicker of doubt: four against England, six against Iceland. When this team is asked for goals, it delivers them. The obligation to attack was never a sentence; it was, as we suspected, an invitation.
The match was broken open before the fifth minute was out. A one-two between Vicky López and Alexia Putellas, a run in from the right and a left-footed finish: first shot, first goal. From there, a monologue. Spain put together a first half of overwhelming dominance, with the game played almost entirely around the Icelandic box. Ona Batlle, immense down the flank, served up two assists: Edna Imade’s for 0-2 and Salma Paralluelo’s for 0-3. By the interval the ticket to Brazil was already stamped, and the only question left was the size of the rout.
Sonia Bermúdez answered that question from the bench. Aitana Bonmatí and Claudia Pina came on at half-time, and both scored. Pina, a cross-shot off the post and in, the kind that needs no context. Aitana, a crisp left foot from outside the area to round things off on her return. Vicky López, meanwhile, completed her brace with a long-range strike teed up by Patri Guijarro. That Aitana comes on to finish a job already done, and that Pina also waits her turn on the bench, says more about the project than any scoreline.
And there, perhaps, is the figure that really matters. Spain have qualified for their fourth consecutive World Cup with Vicky López (19), Edna Imade and Lucía Corrales in the starting eleven, with Esther González left out of the final squad altogether, and with Aitana and Pina waiting their turn on the bench. The world champions’ changing of the guard is not happening in some wilderness years or a meaningless friendly: it is happening while winning 1-6 away from home, on a ground where Spain had never won. Because yes —a small note for the history books—: until tonight, La Roja had never won on Icelandic soil. A 1-1 in 1998, a 3-0 defeat in 2002 and a 0-0 in 2017. Three visits, not a single win. The fourth attempt ended with half a dozen.
Iceland’s consolation goal barely disturbed an evening Spain managed with the ease of a side that long ago stopped asking permission. There were no nerves, no calculator, not the faintest trace of the worry that had been talked up so much in the build-up. There was what there has been for three years: a great team doing what great teams do.
Spain will defend their crown next summer in Brazil. They arrive as what they are —the best side in the world— and with one added certainty: the bench is pushing, the academy is pushing, and nobody, inside or out, takes their place for granted. The worry, it turns out, was unfounded. It always was.
Let them take note in Brazil. Around here, we don’t do sums out of fear.
You can check our Iceland vs Spain match preview, read why the two-goal requirement was a half-truth about World Cup qualification, or read our profile on Vicky López’s stellar performance in Reikiavik.
