Spain are favourites for the Euro 2024 final against England on Sunday.
That much is clear from the performances and results from the tournament, but there is another historical reason to give them confidence.
Which is, simply, that Spanish men’s teams do not lose finals. Or, at least they have not since 2001. Actually, Spanish teams have lost a few in that time, but only because they were playing another Spanish team.
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In the last 23 years, Spanish sides — clubs and the national team — have appeared in 22 major finals against teams from other countries. They have won all of them. The national team are responsible for three of them, Sevilla six, Real Madrid five, Barcelona four, Atletico Madrid two and one each for Villarreal and Valencia.
Since May 2001, Spanish teams have played non-Spanish teams in 22 major finals (Champions League, Europa League, World Cup, Euros). The Spanish side has won all 22 finals.
— Colin Millar (@Millar_Colin) July 9, 2024
Another four finals in that time were between two Spanish sides — the 2014 and 2016 Madrid derby Champions League finals, plus Sevilla’s win over Espanyol and Atletico beating Athletic Bilbao in the 2007 and 2012 Europa League finals respectively — so you can throw those in too.
The last time a Spanish side lost to a foreign team in a major final was in the Champions League in 2001, when Bayern Munich beat Valencia. If you wanted to stretch the point, you could argue that because Bayern won that on penalties, technically Valencia didn’t lose…but even if you did think that, you would only have to go back another week for the end of the run, as Liverpool defeated Alaves in the UEFA Cup final seven days earlier.
There is one caveat here, in the shape of the Nations League. Spain lost to France in the 2021 final, so it depends on whether you view that competition as a major honour, or UEFA’s attempt to reduce pointless friendlies and game the qualification process (positively) in favour of smaller nations. For our purposes, we’re going with the latter.
Spanish women’s teams have a pretty strong record too, but not quite as spotless. The national team beat England in the 2023 World Cup final and Barcelona have won three Champions League finals, but they have also lost two in that period.
It is, however you slice it, an astonishing record, and one difficult to match in the history of the game. Even when English clubs dominated Europe in the 1970s and early 80s, there were a few defeats thrown in: Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa won seven European Cups in eight years between 1977 and 1984, but during that spell, Arsenal lost the 1980 Cup Winners’ Cup final to Valencia.
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German teams were strong in that era, most notably through Bayern’s three European Cups in a row between 1974 and 1976, but Borussia Monchengladbach were one of Liverpool’s opponents a couple of years later.
Italy were strong in the 1960s, AC Milan and Inter sharing three European Cups and Fiorentina winning the first Cup Winners’ Cup, but La Viola lost the second, in 1962, to Atletico. They were dominant in the late 1980s and 90s: between 1989 and 1999 Italian clubs won eight UEFA Cups, three Cup Winners’ Cups and four European Cups/Champions Leagues, but even in that period there were nine defeats in finals to foreign teams.
You could go back right to the start, and Real’s dominance of the first five European Cups, but Barcelona lost the final of the sixth and Real themselves were defeated in the seventh, by Benfica.
So what’s the reason for this dominance in finals?
“The results of Spanish football are the consequence of the sum of many factors,” says Aston Villa manager Unai Emery who, when in charge of Sevilla and Villarreal, is responsible for four of the Spanish successes. “The methodology and the work that is done in our football schools, the facilities and level of training for children in the clubs and federations. Also the innate talent and imagination of the players and the ability of our clubs to compete.
“And obviously in the qualifications of our coaches, starting with Pep Guardiola and continuing with those who have also been able to win titles and compete internationally.”
The financial dominance (at least before state/oligarchical wealth arrived) of Real, and to a lesser extent Barcelona, is clearly one factor. Real’s run of recent Champions League dominance was powered by Florentino Perez’s second Galactico era and the huge sums spent on Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and others.
Barcelona haven’t been shy about spending big either, but La Masia not only provided the nucleus of the team that won four Champions Leagues, but also the Spanish team that won Euro 2008 and 2012, and the 2010 World Cup. This record would not have been so impressive without Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique, Carles Puyol and Lionel Messi.
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“Real Madrid has shown that, in the last 10 years, its excellence in management and its capacity to renew itself by winning is unequalled worldwide,” says Emery. “Despite this last era, Barcelona is also a flagship. They are a locomotive that pulls our football and to which other clubs such as Villarreal, Valencia, Sevilla and Atletico have contributed to by winning titles.”
You could argue that Atletico and Villarreal’s successes aren’t necessarily connected to anything else, just good teams who won trophies, albeit in Atletico’s case broadly down to the once-in-a-lifetime fusion of a manager and team, Diego Simeone having shaped the club to his image over the last decade.
Equally, you could apply the ‘rising tide lifts all ships’ logic: is their success connected to Real and Barcelona? Are they part of a broader national culture of success? Jose Luis Mendilibar, the man who coached Sevilla to their most recent Europa League success in 2023, believes so.
“We compete very well,” he says. “I also think that tactically we work as a team, whereas in other countries they work more individually. The youth teams work with a more collective idea of the game and thinking about building players to compete in their first teams with a similar idea of football from a very early age.
“Portugal and France, to give you two examples, are countries that export individuals, while in Spain the team culture is a fundamental value that is instilled in children. And that solidarity helps in difficult moments.”
Sevilla’s extraordinary record in the Europa League is slightly tougher to explain. There are strands of logic, such as their shrewd recruitment over the years and a canny knack of picking the right manager. But it is pretty hard to figure out why a moderately-sized club who has only won their national league once (in 1945-46) and a handful of domestic cups, has won a competition seven times since 2006.
“In Spain, football triumphs because there is a passion for sport and there is a culture of sport,” says Emery, architect of three of those Sevilla wins, “which extends to tennis, basketball, motor racing…
“The country should be proud that our sport, football, is one of the main assets of the Spanish brand. There are few industries or sectors with as much brand recognition as Spanish football. And football is perhaps what unites us most around the world.”
On Sunday, Luis de la Fuente and his team will hope to make it 23 undefeated. History, if nothing else, tells us they will do it.
(Photos: Getty Images; design: Eamon Dalton)