Mikel Oyarzabal is the anti-Ronaldo! Spain's unsung hero perfectly placed to steal the spotlight away from Cristiano in World Cup showdown with Portugal

At a World Cup illuminated by superstars, Oyarzabal really does look like the odd man out in the race to finish as the tournament's top-scorer.

Everyone expected Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Ousmane Dembele to be battling for the Golden Boot - but nobody was tipping Oyarzabal to be in the mix, which is strange on the face of it.

After all, it was Oyarzabal who scored Spain's winner in the Euro 2024, while he was also on target in five of his country's World Cup qualifiers, while in the one game in which he didn't find the back of net, against Turkiye, he racked up a hat-trick of assists.

Furthermore, with his goal in Spain's final World Cup warm-up against Peru, Oyarzabal took his goals tally to 12 in his previous 11 appearances at international level.

He was also coming off the back of the most prolific campaign of his La Liga career (15 goals in 34 games), while also having maintained his remarkable record of netting in every single final he'd played in as La Real upset Atletico Madrid to win just their third Copa del Rey.

In light of those outstanding statistics, how on earth did Oyarzabal manage to arrive in North America on the down low? Perhaps it was inevitable, though, given the Basque Country's low-key legend seems to specialise in flying under the radar.

Oyarzabal was at it again in Spain's 3-0 win over Austria in the last 16. When the ball arrived at the feet of Cucurella wide on the left, there were six Austrians and three Spanish in the box. Both Alex Baena and Dani Olmo were closely marked, but Oyarzabal was not, despite standing in the middle of the area, and yet he ended up almost nonchalantly side-footing home the game's opening goal.

Oyarzabal's ability to go undetected was even more glaring on his second goal. Even accounting for the fact that Austria were desperately pushing forward in the closing stages, they had their entire back four in position - and yet nobody seemed to spot Spain's seemingly invisible man before he coolly converted yet another cross from Cucurella to make it 17 goals in his last 16 starts for his country.

It must, of course, be acknowledged that Ronaldo rarely benefits from such a lack of attention. The movement of the most famous face and finisher in the world hardly ever goes unnoticed, so credit must go to Ronaldo for the way in which he has managed to engineer some space for himself at the World Cup - particularly as he's now 41 years of age.

He was only denied what would have been a brilliant goal in Portugal's round-of-32 win over Croatia by a marginal offside call. However, there is simply no getting away from the fact that Ronaldo no longer carries anything like the same goal-scoring threat against quality opposition.

He may have scored his first-ever World Cup knockout goal from the penalty spot in Toronto, but he did not play well at all - and, for once, even Roberto Martinez acknowledged that fact by taking off international football's all-time leading scorer with just under 10 minutes to remaining.

What's more, Portugal only got through to the last 16 thanks to Ronaldo's criminally underused understudy, Goncalo Ramos, who headed home a 94th-minute winner after being entrusted with the sole responsibility of leading the attack following the withdrawal of a player who had touched the ball just once in the penalty area (while fortuitously converting his poorly-struck spot-kick!).

Given he no longer influences play outside of the area, it was hard not to question the value of Ronaldo's contribution to the Seleccao cause if he's no longer able to do much damage inside it - particularly as Martinez's men will now be going up against a Spain side that has yet to concede a single goal at the World Cup.

One of the primary reasons for that flawless defensive record is the entire side's willingness to work ferociously to recover possession on the rare occasions that it's lost. As Oyarzabal previously pointed out, industry has been key to Spain's 34-match unbeaten run: "Luis de la Fuente stressed to the group: work for your team-mate, not your own benefit. Those are the values the manager embodies."

It's arguably Oyarzabal, though, who best personifies that philosophy on the pitch. De la Fuente describes his first-choice forward as "a complete footballer" and is delighted that such a "down-to-earth character" is finally getting the "recognition he deserves".

Not that Oyarzabal really wants any, of course. He's kind of like the 'anti-Ronaldo, solely focused on doing his "job", which is to help his team. He even insists he doesn't care if he fails to score another goal at this World Cup so long as Spain win.

"What matters is having my family here," he said after his double against Austria took his tournament tally to four, "and the most important thing is our shared objective."

In that sense, he really couldn't be more different to Ronaldo, as a player or as a person, but that doesn't make him any less of a potential match-winner in Dallas on Monday. If anything, it might be the precise reason why he ends up stealing the spotlight away from one of the game's biggest superstars.

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