History of the Spain national football team

The Spanish squad that played at the 1920 Summer Olympics.

The first Spain national football team was constituted in 1920, with the main objective of finding a team that would represent Spain at the Summer Olympics held in Belgium in that same year.[3]

Spain made their much anticipated debut at the tournament on 28 August 1920 against the national team of Denmark (runners-up in the last two previous Olympic tournament). The match took place at the Stade Joseph Marien in Brussels.[4] The Spanish won that match by a scoreline of 1–0 thanks to a goal from Patricio Arabolaza, who thus became Spain's first international goalscorer. This match would also make Spain, at that time, the 28th nation to play a football match. In their next match stage, Spain were set to play their next game against the hosts Belgium; in that match, Spain could not come up with the victory and lost 1–3.

Hosts Belgium ended up winning the tournament after the Czechoslovakians were disqualified for leaving the pitch in the middle of the final game, thus Spain and another three national teams were giving the chance to play a small consolation tournament where the winner would win either the silver or bronze medal. Their first match in this new "quarter-finals" was played against Sweden in which the Spanish came from a goal behind to win 2–1 at the very end. José María Belauste and Domingo Acedo were the scores of that game. The following match was played against Italy. Félix Sesúmaga scored the two fabulous goals that would give the Spanish a 2–0, eliminating the Italians and giving them the victory to send them to the semi-finals of the tournament (Until UEFA Euro 2012, this had only been the only time Spain had beaten Italy in an official match). The final four teams were Spain, the Netherlands, France and Czechoslovakia. But only the Netherlands advance to final match against Spain due to France not showing up and the Czechs being disqualified previously. In the final match, Spain defeated the Dutch 3–1 with two goals from Félix Sesúmaga and one from Pichichi. With this, Spain won the silver medal at the Olympics and their first international silverware at any tournament.

The medalist at that Olympic tournament were: Domingo Gómez-Acedo, Patricio Arabolaza, Mariano Arrate, Juan Artola, Joaquín Vázquez, José María Belauste, Sabino Bilbao, Ramón Eguiazábal, Moncho, Ricardo Zamora, Silverio Izaguirre, Pichichi, Luis Otero, Francisco Pagazaurtundúa, Josep Samitier, Agustín Sancho, Félix Sesúmaga and Pedro Vallana with the coach at that time Paco Bru.

Although it was a very successful event for the national team, it would take many years later to achieve that success again.

The Spanish Civil War and World War II prevented Spain from playing any competitive matches between the 1934 World Cup and the 1950 World Cup qualifiers, where they overcame Iberian rivals Portugal, who later declined an invitation to take part, with a 5–1 win and 2–2 draw. At the finals in Brazil, they topped their group against England, Chile and the United States to progress to the final round. For the first, and so far only time in the history of the FIFA World Cup, the winner was decided, not by a single championship match, but via a group format involving the four teams who had won their respective groups in the previous stage. The four teams in the final group were Uruguay, Brazil, Sweden and Spain. Spain failed to record a win (W0 D1 L2) and finished in fourth place. Until 2010, this had been Spain's highest finish in a FIFA World Cup finals, which had given them the name of the "underachievers." Spain's leading scorer during the 1950 World Cup, who ended the tournament with five goals.

Under French-Argentine coach Helenio Herrera and Italian assistant coach Daniel Newlan, Spain came out of dormancy to qualify for the first European Championship in 1960. Spain beat Poland 7–2 on aggregate to progress to the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, Spain, who were under Francoist rule, refused to travel to the Soviet Union for political reasons. Proposals to play the tie in a one-legged format at a neutral venue were rejected by the Soviets, and Spain was disqualified.[5]

The Spaniards, led by Alfredo Di Stéfano, qualified for the 1962 World Cup, beating Wales 3–2 over two legs to advance to the UEFA/CAF play-off where they would beat Morocco 4–2 over two legs to advance to the final.

Spain won its first major international title after winning the 1964 European Championship held in Spain. Spain was able to defeat a highly favored Hungary side 2–1 to advance to the final against the Soviet Union, which was awarder a walkover win four years earlier. Spain would go on to win the final played in Madrid by the exact score of 2–1 after Marcelino broke the 1–1 tie in the 84th minute. The victory would stand as Spain's lone major title for 44 years.

Spain qualified for the 1966 World Cup in England, drawn into a group which included West Germany and Argentina. They lost to both those teams 2–1 in Birmingham and Sheffield, respectively. This effectively ensured their elimination from the group stage, although they were able to gain some dignity by beating Switzerland 2–1.

Spain then reached a low point in its history where they failed to qualify for the 1968, 1972 and 1976 European Championships in Italy, Belgium and Yugoslavia respectively, and they also failed to qualify for the 1970 and 1974 World Cup tournaments in Mexico and West Germany respectively. This reflected the turbulent time in Spain's general history; the fascist government led by Franco was nearing the end of its reign, which effectively happened in 1975.

Spain in a friendly match v. Argentina at River Plate, October 1974

Spain qualified for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. This proved to be a difficult tournament for the Spanish team as they played under varying pitch conditions. Spain lost their first match 2–1 against Austria in the José Amalfitani Stadium of Buenos Aires, which had the best-maintained pitch of the tournament. They then drew with tournament favorites Brazil in Mar del Plata, which had probably the worst-maintained pitch of the tournament; there were rumors the Argentine authorities deliberately sabotaged the Mar del Plata pitch to lessen the chances of Brazil's successes, as Brazil played all their matches there. The atrocious pitch was filled with holes, but Spain kept Brazil from scoring any goals. Spain went back to the excellent pitch of the Estadio José María Minella, where they beat Sweden 1–0. But Spain were eliminated after Austria's two victories and one loss, and Brazil's one win and two draws meant that Spain had a worse record than both.

In 1980, for the first time since 1964, Spain qualified for the European Championships, again held in Italy. However, they were eliminated in the group stage after two 2–1 losses against Belgium and England and a draw against hosts Italy.

For the 1990 World Cup in Italy, Spain had a new coach, Luis Suárez. Having qualified from a group consisting of Republic of Ireland, Hungary, Northern Ireland and Malta, Spain entered the competition on a good run of form, and after reaching the knock out stages through a 0–0 draw with Uruguay and wins over South Korea (3–1) and Belgium (2–1) in Udine and Verona and winning their group, they fell to a 2–1 defeat to Yugoslavia in their Round of 16 match in Verona.

Newly appointed coach Vicente Miera failed to gain qualification for Spain for Euro 1992, after finishing third in a group behind France and Czechoslovakia. Vicente Miera did, however, lead Spain to the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics[6] in Barcelona.

Javier Clemente and the Spain team in a training session.

Javier Clemente was appointed as Spain's coach in 1992, and the qualification for the 1994 World Cup in the United States was achieved with eight wins and one loss in twelve matches. In the final tournament Spain were in Group C in which they drew with Korea Republic 2–2 in Dallas and 1–1 with Germany in Chicago, before qualifying for the second round with a 3–1 victory over Bolivia, again in Chicago. Spain continued through the second round with a 3–0 victory over Switzerland in Washington, but their tournament ended with a controversial 2–1 defeat to Italy in the quarter-finals in Foxborough near Boston, after star forward Luis Enrique was elbowed in the face by Mauro Tassotti in the Italian penalty box which caused him to visibly bleed from his nose.

Spain qualified for Euro 1996 in England from a group consisting of Denmark, Belgium, Cyprus, Macedonia and Armenia. In the final tournament, Spain faced group matches in Leeds against Bulgaria, France and Romania. With 1–1 draws against the first two opponents, and a 2–1 win over Romania, Spain confirmed their place in the quarter-finals with a match with hosts England at London's Wembley Stadium, which finished goalless and Spain eventually fell 4–2 in the shootout.

In his second World Cup as Spain's coach, Clemente led his team undefeated through their qualifying group in which Yugoslavia and Czech Republic were the other contenders. Spain qualified with fourteen other European sides in the first ever thirty-two team World Cup. Drawn into Group D at the final tournament, Spain's opponents consisted of Nigeria and Paraguay, as well as previous World Cup semi-finalists Bulgaria.

Their campaign saw them first pitched against Nigeria in Nantes, with Spain taking the lead after 20 minutes from a curling Fernando Hierro free kick, to great delight of the Spanish crowd. The Nigerians equalised four minutes later, however, to tie the game at 1–1 before half-time. In the second half, Spain once again took the lead after one minute played as Hierro played a long aerial pass to Raúl, who volleyed in the ball from close-range to give the Spanish a 2–1 lead. Nigeria's attempts at equalising did not become successful until the 73rd minute, as Garba Lawal broke through the left wing and tried a back pass, which was intercepted and poorly dealt with by captain Andoni Zubizarreta, who deflected the cross into his own net and tied the game at 2–2 with little over 15 minutes left of play. Four minutes later, however, Spain failed to properly clear a Nigeria thrown in, leaving Sunday Oliseh to strike a powerful shot from the rebound just outside the box past Zubizarreta to end the game 3–2 for Nigeria.

Their next game was a goalless draw against a José Luis Chilavert-inspired Paraguay in Saint-Etienne, giving Spain a mere point after two games, but their chances of qualification remained alive. Going into their last game against a weaker Bulgaria team in Lens, Spain needed to defeat their fellow Europeans and for Nigeria to either beat Paraguay or draw. Spain did their part by trampling the Bulgarians with a scoreline of 6–1 and completing their group stage campaign with four points, but it was not enough as Paraguay beat group leaders Nigeria 3–1, placing them in second place ahead of Spain and Bulgaria, who were eliminated by finishing third and fourth in their group respectively.

After a 3–2 opening defeat to Cyprus in Euro 2000 qualifying, Clemente was fired and José Antonio Camacho was appointed as coach. Spain won the rest of their games to qualify for the final tournament, where they were drawn into Group C. A 1–0 defeat to Norway was followed by victories over Slovenia (2–1) and Yugoslavia (4–3), with Spain thus setting up a quarter-final against 1998 World Cup champions France, which was won 2–1 by eventual Euro champions France, with Raúl missed a penalty in the final minutes.

The qualifying tournament for the 2002 World Cup went as expected for Spain as the team topped a group consisting of Austria, Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Liechtenstein. In the final tournament, Spain won its three matches in group B, against Slovenia, Paraguay (both by a score of 3–1) and South Africa (3–2). Spain beat the Republic of Ireland on penalties in the second round, and faced co-hosts South Korea in the quarter-finals. In what is considered a highly controversial match, Spain eventually lost in a penalty shootout after having two goals called back for alleged infractions during regular and extra time.[7]

At Euro 2004 qualifying, Spain only finished second in their group, being stunned by the Greeks with a shock home loss and only managed to qualify for Euro 2004 by overcoming Norway. In the main tournament, Spain was drawn into group A with hosts Portugal, Russia and Greece, behind whom they had finished second in qualifying. Spain defeated Russia 1–0 and drew 1–1 with Greece, but failed to get the draw they needed against Portugal to proceed to the knock out stages. Iñaki Sáez was sacked weeks later and replaced by Luis Aragonés.

Spain qualified for the 2006 World Cup only after a play-off against Slovakia, as they had finished behind Serbia and Montenegro in Group 7, which also included Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Lithuania and San Marino. In Group H of the German hosted finals, Spain won all their matches, and beat Ukraine 4–0, Tunisia 3–1 and Saudi Arabia 1–0. Spain, however, fell 3–1 in the second round to France, with only the consolation of a share, with Brazil, of the 2006 FIFA Fair Play Award.

After being eliminated from the competition, Luis Aragonés came to the decision that the team was not physical or tough enough to be able to out-muscle opponents, they therefore opted to start concentrating on monopolising the ball and thus started to employ the tiki-taka – a style characterised by short passing and movement, working the ball through various channels, and maintaining possession. Raphael Honigstein describes it as "a significant upgrade of the Dutch 'total football', a system that relied on players changing positions".[8]

Spanish players celebrating their victory in Madrid.

Spain qualified for Euro 2008 at the top of Qualifying Group F with 28 points out of a possible 36, and were seeded 12th for the finals. They won all their games in Group D: 4–1 against Russia, and 2–1 against both Sweden and defending champions Greece.

Reigning World Cup holders Italy were the opponents in the quarter final match, and held Spain to a finished 0–0 draw resulting in a penalty shoot-out which Spain won 4–2. Spain met Russia again in the semi-final, again beating them, this time 3–0.[9]

In the final, played in Vienna's Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Spain defeated Germany 1–0, with a goal scored by Fernando Torres in the 33rd minute.[10] This was Spain's first major title since the 1964 European Championship. Spain were the top scoring team, with 12 goals, and David Villa finished as the top scorer with four goals; Xavi was awarded the player of the tournament, and nine Spanish players were picked for the Euro 2008 Team of the Tournament.[11]

Austria lost to Spain by a score of 5–1 in November 2009 in Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna

Luis Aragonés left the manager's role after the Euro 2008 success, and was replaced by Vicente del Bosque.[12]

2008 saw David Villa score 16 goals in 15 games, breaking the Spanish record of ten goals in one year held by Raúl since 1999.[13] On 11 February 2009, Villa broke another Spanish record as his 36th-minute goal against England saw him become the first Spanish player to score in six consecutive games.[14] By the start of the tournament, Del Bosque's had ten consecutive wins, making him the first international manager to do so from his debut, breaking João Saldanha's record – held since 1969 – of nine consecutive wins with Brazil.

Spain won all three of its matches at the group stage, the 5–0 win over New Zealand including a Fernando Torres] hat-trick that is the earliest and fastest hat-trick in the tournament's history. With further wins over Iraq (1–0) and South Africa (2–0) they earned not only qualification for the semi-finals, but also obtained the world record for 15 consecutive wins and tied the record of 35 consecutive unbeaten games (with Brazil).

On 24 June 2009, Spain's undefeated record ended when the United States beat Spain 2–0 in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-finals which sent Spain to the third place match. This was Spain's first defeat since 2006. Spain defeated hosts South Africa 3–2 after extra time in the third-place playoff.[15]

On 9 September 2009, Spain secured its place at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa after beating Estonia 3–0 in Mérida.[16] Spain went on to record a perfect World Cup qualifying record with ten wins out of ten in Group 5, finishing with a 5–2 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina on 14 October 2009.[17] The Spanish team entered the 2010 World Cup ranked number 2 on the FIFA rankings and as clear favorites to win the tournament.

Note: A = Away kits, T = Third kits, otherwise Home kits.

1920–21

1921–22

1922–24

1924–31

1931–36

1936–38

1938–45

1945–47

1947–59

1959–79

1959–79 (A)

1979–81

1981–83

1984–86

1984–86 (A)

1986–87

1986–87 (A)

1988–91

1988–91 (A)

1988–91 (T)

1991–92

1992–94

1994–96

1994–96 (A)

1996–98

1998–2000

1998–2000 (A)

2000–02

2002–04

2004–06

2004–06 (A)

2006–07

2006–08 (A)

2007–08

2008–10 (away)

2009

2009–10

2010–11 (A)

2010–11

2011–12 (A)

2011–12

2012–14 (A)

2012–13

2013–15

2014–16 (A)

2014 (T)

2015–17

2016 (A)

2016–18 (A)

2017–19

2018–present (A)

• Spain national team profile at RFEF.es