Spain has already qualified for the 2030 World Cup, which they will co-host alongside Portugal and Morocco, a tournament in which Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay will also host group-stage matches.<\/p>\n
What is Spain\u2019s World Cup pedigree?<\/strong><\/p>\n For most of World Cup history, the Spanish would be viewed as potential \u2018dark horses\u2019, with squads of talented players that looked excellent on paper only to fall short once the tournament started.<\/p>\n That changed in 2010, when a golden generation including Xavi, Iker Casillas and Xabi Alonso won the trophy thanks to Andres Iniesta\u2019s dramatic late winner in extra time of the final against the Netherlands.<\/p>\n Since then, Spain has returned to underwhelming us \u2014 exiting in the group stage as reigning world and European champions in 2014 after losses to the Netherlands (5-1) and Chile (2-0), and were eliminated in the last 16 on penalties in 2018 (to hosts Russia) and 2022 (to neighbors Morocco).<\/p>\n How do Spain play?<\/strong><\/p>\n De la Fuente has kept the possession-based style for which Spain are renowned, and which suits their many technically adept players. However, this current side get the ball forward quickly to their pacy wide attackers, rather than circulating it for long periods in deeper areas.<\/p>\n Another objective is aiming to regain possession quickly by collectively pressing opponents and not allowing them to settle into games.<\/p>\n It makes for an attractive team to watch. They have scored at least twice in each of their past 13 outings going back to October last year, while also keeping clean sheets in five of their six qualifiers.<\/p>\n Who is Spain\u2019s key player?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yamal scored on his senior Spain debut in September 2023, at 16 years and 57 days old, and quickly established himself as a global superstar.<\/p>\n Usually starting on the right of a three-man attack, the Barcelona forward is a superb dribbler, an excellent crosser and an accomplished finisher, as showcased by a tremendous long-range strike in the Euro 2024 semi-final victory against France.<\/p>\n The now 18-year-old missed the last four matches of Spain\u2019s qualifying campaign due to a persistent groin problem, which has caused some friction between the national federation and his club.<\/p>\n When are the fixtures?<\/strong><\/p>\n The answer is we don\u2019t know yet.<\/p>\n FIFA has announced that, for the first time ever, the full tournament schedule won\u2019t be confirmed on the same day as the draw itself.<\/p>\n Instead, FIFA president Gianni Infantino will preside over a second ceremony on Saturday, beginning at 12 p.m. ET (5 p.m. GMT), where the all-important when and where for each of the fixtures will be revealed.<\/p>\n FIFA says the game allocation process will aim to \u201censure the best possible conditions for all teams and spectators while, where possible, enabling fans all over the world to watch their teams play live across different time zones.\u201d<\/p>\n The final version of the game schedule will then be confirmed in March, once the inter-confederation playoffs and European playoffs have been completed and the final 48 tournament teams confirmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain has been drawn against Uruguay, Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde in Group H for the 2026 World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,157951,55985,96,10031,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-614414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","11":"tag-international-football","12":"tag-la-liga","13":"tag-soccer","14":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115668601138107785","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Spain.png\")
<\/p>\n