Yamal's early-goal habit is getting ridiculous

Same script, different opponent

Three games, three goals, all of them landing before the six-minute mark. Yamal has made a habit out of ambushing opponents before they've settled into their shape, and Czechia became the latest side to find that out early at the cost of the rest of the match. The Guardian reports Spain maintained their flawless record in the competition on the back of it.

There's a version of this run where it reads as a fluke, a hot streak that burns out by the next international break. Three for three, each one inside six minutes, starts to look less like variance and more like a pattern a defence should be scouting for.

A teenager setting the terms

This isn't form appearing from nowhere. Yamal has spent the season as Barcelona's most dangerous attacker and now he's exporting that same instinct to international duty, opening the scoring for Spain inside six minutes in three straight games. That overlap, club output and country output pointing the same direction, is rare for a player still a teenager.

Why the timing matters

Spain are deep into a Nations League campaign with a perfect record intact, and a forward who scores before the away fans have found their seats is the sort of weapon that turns tight group games into early formalities. Luis de la Fuente doesn't need to ask Yamal to settle a match down. He's doing it before most managers have finished their first read of the opposition's press.

The real test comes against sides who actually prepare for it. Everyone now knows what he does in the first six minutes.