The Spain national football team is the national football team of Spain and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
Spain played their first international in 1921, beating Belgium 2-0 in Bilbao. They also became the first non-British side to beat England when they won a friendly in Madrid 4-3 in 1929. Yet since then they have considerably under-achieved, despite boasting one of the strongest domestic leagues in Europe. They have won just one major trophy, the second European Championship in 1964, in which they had the benefit of home advantage. They beat the Soviet Union 2-1 in the final in front of a crowd of 125,000 at Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium. The build-up to the match had been highly politically-charged, as Spain had refused to play in the Soviet Union in the previous tournament in 1960. Jesus Pereda put the Spanish ahead after just six minutes but they needed a late Marcelino Martínez header to win it after Galimzian Khusainov equalised with a free-kick.
Spain has greatly underachived in the World Cup, with their best finish being fourth place in 1950, although often being touted as pre-tournament favorites. They did win the gold medal when they hosted 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and the 1999 World Youth Championship in Nigeria.
Spain will be playing in Group D with Greece, Russia and Sweden.
|
