Spain After Euro 2024: The Euro Champions Arrive With Belief and Questions

Spain arrives at the 2026 World Cup as European champions and as one of the favorites for the trophy. The Euro 2024 victory, achieved with a series of confident performances that culminated in a one-nil win over England in the Berlin final, transformed the conversation about Spanish football. The team's identity, which had been the subject of debate for much of the previous decade, is now clear. The squad's quality is undisputed. The expectations, which had been deliberately managed downward in the years following the disappointments of the 2014 and 2022 World Cups, have been recalibrated.

Manager Luis de la Fuente has been retained and has continued the tactical work that produced the European title. The system, a flexible 4-3-3 that can shift into a 4-2-3-1 depending on the opposition, emphasizes possession and high pressing in ways that recall the Spain teams of the late 2000s and early 2010s but with a directness that distinguishes the current side from its predecessors. The midfield, anchored by Rodri and complemented by the creative passing of Pedri and Fabián Ruiz, controls matches through patient buildup interrupted by sudden vertical passes that exploit the wide positions.

Lamine Yamal, who turned eighteen during the qualifying campaign, has become the player around whom the attack is built. The Barcelona winger's combination of dribbling, vision and finishing makes him one of the few players in the world capable of changing the rhythm of a match through individual moments. His partnership with Nico Williams on the opposite flank produces the width that the system requires, and the rotation patterns between the two wide players have become more sophisticated over the qualifying period.

The center forward position remains the question. Álvaro Morata, who captained the team to the European title, is now in his thirties and has not played regularly at club level. The alternative is Mikel Oyarzabal, who scored the winning goal in the Berlin final and who provides a different profile, with more pressing intensity but less penalty box presence. Joselu, the Aston Villa forward who emerged late in his career as a national team option, has not been selected for the most recent squad. The choice between Morata and Oyarzabal will likely be made based on the opposition, with Morata starting against deeper-defending sides and Oyarzabal preferred when the team expects to attack at higher tempo.

The defensive structure is more settled than the attack. Aymeric Laporte and Robin Le Normand are the preferred center-back pairing, with Pau Cubarsí emerging as a credible alternative and likely future first choice. The fullbacks, Daniel Carvajal on the right and Marc Cucurella on the left, provide both width in attack and defensive solidity. The depth at fullback is thinner than the manager would prefer, and an injury to either player could produce difficulties in the late knockout rounds.

The qualifying campaign was straightforward. Spain won nine of ten matches with the only defeat coming in a meaningless final fixture in which the manager rested most of the starting eleven. The performances were professional rather than spectacular, which has been the criticism of De la Fuente from sections of the Spanish football press throughout his tenure. The response from the manager has been to point at the results and at the European title, an answer that has been difficult to challenge but that has not entirely silenced the discussion about whether the team should be playing more expansive football.

The squad's experience in international tournaments is a significant asset. The starting eleven that lifted the European trophy in Berlin will be largely intact in the World Cup opener. The younger players who joined the squad in the months after the Euro, including Cubarsí and a couple of Real Sociedad midfielders, have been integrated gradually rather than thrust into the spotlight. The dressing-room hierarchy, which was a problem in earlier Spain squads, appears stable. The captaincy is shared between Morata and Rodri, with the latter increasingly taking on the public-facing leadership responsibilities.

Spain's path to a third World Cup title runs through a draw that will likely include matches against one or two of the other tournament favorites in the knockout rounds. The 2010 generation that won in South Africa has become the historical reference point for the current squad, and the players have been asked about that comparison repeatedly in pre-tournament interviews. The honest answer, which several of them have given, is that comparisons across generations are difficult to make until the tournament is finished. The Spain squad that arrives in North America has the talent, the structure and the experience to produce the kind of run that justifies the comparison. Whether they do so will be one of the defining questions of the tournament.