Spain secured their place at next summer’s World Cup with a more-eventful-than-expected 2-2 draw with Turkey at the Estadio de la Cartuja in Seville on Tuesday evening.
Although it was not their best performance of late, they still count among the favourites to win the trophy next summer.
Direct qualification for Spain was never really in doubt, given Turkey needed a seven-goal win to go through automatically instead, but there was at least some drama for the 30,812 crowd at the 70,000-capacity Cartuja stadium.
Barcelona playmaker Dani Olmo’s neat finish put Spain ahead before goals either side of half-time from Deniz Gul and Salih Ozcan raised the prospect of an upset. But Real Sociedad striker Mikel Oyarzabal pounced from close range to equalise, and the final whistle confirmed Luis de la Fuente’s side as group winners.
“We’re very happy, this shows how difficult it was to do everything we had done before, to keep winning,” De la Fuente said at his post-match news conference. “It’s not bad to be reminded of this sometimes, how difficult it is for these players to keep performing at such a high level. We’re just happy to have qualified for a World Cup, and to keep our unbeaten run going.”
The ease with which Spain sailed through the campaign this autumn, with 16 points taken from 18 available, 21 goals scored and just two conceded, was especially impressive given they were often missing various players central to their victory at the 2024 European Championships.
Of the XI that started the 2-1 win against England in the Euro 2024 final, only four began Tuesday’s decisive game against Turkey, with arguably their four best players — Pedri, Rodri, Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams — among those currently sidelined through injury.
A feature of this qualification phase has been less-heralded players stepping in without a significant drop in the team’s cohesion. Spain are now 31 games unbeaten (25 wins, six draws), having recently passed the previous record unbeaten run of 29 set by the side which won World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012.
That all-conquering team coached by Vicente Del Bosque was packed with stars from the Clasico duo — such as Barcelona’s Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta, and Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos.
The current squad is drawn from many more clubs and has fewer superstars. Thirty-one players were used in total across the qualification phase. The only three to start all six games were Oyarzabal, Athletic Club goalkeeper Unai Simon, and Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino (who scored six goals, including a hat-trick in September’s 6-0 demolition of Turkey in Istanbul).
-
Merino has starred for Spain during qualification (Ozan Kose/Getty Images)
Crystal Palace’s summer signing Yeremy Pino came in at home to Georgia in October and scored the opening goal in a 2-0 victory. Atletico Madrid playmaker Alex Baena shone in last Saturday’s 4-0 reverse fixture win in Tbilisi.
Against Turkey on Tuesday night, it was Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Aleix Garcia who got a chance and fitted in well, with a fine cross-field ball key to Olmo’s early opening goal. Porto striker Samu Aghehowa (21) and Barca attacking midfielder Fermin Lopez (22) both came off the bench, and both came close to winning the game for Spain late on.
Through these qualifiers, Madrid centre-back Dean Huijsen (20) and his Barca counterpart Pau Cubarsi (18) have also gained valuable international experience. Other youngsters to feature over the campaign have included Como’s former Real Betis winger Jesus Rodriguez (19) and Atletico midfielder Pablo Barrios (22).
“Injuries have given opportunities to other players who, in other circumstances, would not have been able to show their quality and potential,” De la Fuente said last week. “We have opened wider the group of players we can call on. This is the success of Spanish football — all the clubs produce good players and we get to enjoy them.”
Whoever starts each game — or comes off the bench — Spain have continued to play a modern brand of football which is more direct than previous teams coached by Del Bosque back in 2010 or more recently Luis Enrique at World Cup 2022 (when Spain shone in the group stages, but then drew 0-0 with Morocco in the last 16 and exited on penalties).
De la Fuente’s side still have plenty of technically excellent players who can dominate possession, but they also aim to get the ball forward quickly to their pacy wide attackers, rather than circulating it for long periods in deeper areas.
-
Luis de la Fuente has created a sense of unity in his Spain squad (Joaquin Corchero/Getty Images)
Another objective is collectively pressing high off the ball, aiming to regain possession quickly, denying opponents time to set up an organised defence. It makes for an attractive team to watch who have scored at least two goals in each of their last 13 games, against France, Portugal and the Netherlands.
“We’re the product of what we inherited — since 2008, first with Luis Aragones, then Del Bosque, they left a legacy for all (today’s) players,” De la Fuente said last weekend. “It’s really nice to coach such young players who never tire of working to improve and are motivated to produce a lot more still.”
The biggest shadow over the current Spain setup are continuing tensions over managing the fitness of emerging superstar Yamal. He played Spain’s first two qualifiers, aggravating a previous groin problem, which upset his club coach Hansi Flick. The 18-year-old has been withdrawn from both the last two Spain squads, with De la Fuente publicly complaining last week about Barcelona scheduling a precautionary medical procedure during this international break.
Another concern is whether Manchester City midfielder Rodri can get back to full fitness ahead of next year’s finals — and then whether De la Fuente will decide whether to drop Arsenal’s Martin Zubimendi, who has started all six qualifiers in the holding role, and got forward to score an excellent goal in last weekend’s win in Georgia.
There is also intrigue at centre-forward, where Alvaro Morata was team captain during Euro 2024. The 33-year-old has not featured in recent squads and De la Fuente has been diplomatic when talking publicly about a player who has not scored in 11 games on loan at Serie A team Como this season.
Meanwhile Oyarzabal has been excellent — following his Euro 2024 winning goal against England with another strike in last June’s 2025 Nations League final (which Portugal won on penalties after a 2-2 draw). During this qualifying phase, the understated Basque, who leads the line with intelligence and guile rather than power or pace, racked up six goals and four assists.
There are still questions to resolve — Real Madrid’s Dani Carvajal is the senior right-back but Tottenham’s Pedro Porro has been excellent in qualifying. Euro 2024 star Olmo has struggled for form and fitness this season at Barcelona, but De la Fuente kept faith with a player since they won an Under-21 European Championships together as coach and star midfielder in 2019. Olmo repaid him on Tuesday in Seville with a neat finish to open the scoring and generally bright all-round display.
This Spain team — unlike some of their predecessors — give the impression of being a happy family, with the 64-year-old De la Fuente as their generally liked and respected father figure.
Such unity has been a strength of Spain under De la Fuente and is a big reason why they head into next year’s tournament as the number one FIFA-ranked team in the world.
There is confidence among the squad that they can match the achievement under Del Bosque of following a breakthrough Euros win with a World Cup triumph two years later.