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Spain national football team

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The Spanish national football team represents Spain in international football and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation. The Spanish side is commonly referred to as La Furia Roja (The Red Fury).


Spain are the reigning European champions, having won the UEFA European Championship in 2008. Spain also won the European Nations' Cup in 1964 and reached the UEFA Euro 1984 Final. Spain has qualified for the FIFA World Cup thirteen times, reaching fourth place in the 1950 tournament In July 2008 Spain rose to the top of the FIFA World Ranking for the first time in its history, becoming the sixth nation to top this ranking, and the first who has never won the World Cup. Between November 2006 and June 2009 Spain went undefeated for a record tying 35 consecutive matches before their loss to the United States, a record shared


with Brazil, including a record 15-game winning streak. They are first in the World Football Elo Ratings.



History



Early years



1950 World Cup

Founded in 1913, the Spanish Civil War and World War II prevented Spain from playing any competitive match from the 1934 World Cup to the 1950 World Cup. There they topped their group against England, Chile and the United States to progress to the final round.

At this time, the winner of the World Cup was decided not by a single championship match, but via a group format involving the four teams who had won their respective groups in the previous stage. The four teams in the final group were Uruguay, Brazil, Sweden and Spain. Spain failed to record a win (W0 D1 L2) and finished in fourth place. Until 2010, this fourth place finish had been the furthest that Spain has reached in the World Cup. Spain's leading scorer during the 1950 World Cup was striker Estanislao Basora, who ended the tournament with five goals.

Under French-Argentine coach Helenio Herrera and Italian assistant coach Daniel Newlan, Spain came out of dormancy to qualify for the first European Championship in 1960. Spain beat Poland 7–2 on aggregate to progress to the quarterfinals. However, Spain forfeited its quarterfinal tie with the Soviet Union because