The , commonly referred to as
''la selección'', is the national
Football team of
Spain and is controlled by the
Real Federación Española De Fútbol .
has greatly underachieved in the
World Cup , with their best finish being fourth place in
1950 ), although often being touted as pre-tournament favorites. They did win the gold medal when they hosted
1992 Summer Olympics in
Barcelona and the
1999 World Youth Championship in
Nigeria .
made their international debut in
1920 at the
Olympic Games in
Belgium and came away with the silver medal. They played their first home international in
1921 , beating
Belgium 2-0 in
Bilbao . They also became the first non-
British side to beat
England when they won a friendly in
Madrid 4-3 in
1929 . Yet since then they have considerably under-achieved, despite
La Liga being one of the strongest domestic leagues in
Europe . They have won just one major trophy, the second
European Championship in
1964 , in which they had the benefit of home advantage. They beat the
USSR 2-1 in the final in front of a crowd of 125,000 at the
Bernabéu . The build-up to the match had been highly politically-charged, as had refused to play in the in the USSR during the previous tournament in
1960 .
Jesus María Pereda put the Spanish ahead after just six minutes but they needed a late
Marcelino Martínez header to win it after
Galimzian Khusainov equalised with a free-kick.
At
Euro 2004 , was drawn into group A with
Portugal ,
Russia and
Greece . The Spanish team were touted as heavy favorites for the
2004 crown by the European media. They were also expected heavy favorites to qualify from their group. On
June 12th , Spain expectedly defeated
Russia , 1-0. Four days later Spain faced
Greece . Determined to win, Spain led the match until
Greece scored an equalizer and the match ended 1-1. In their last game against
Portugal , Spain needed to win to qualify for the quarterfinals. However a goal from
Nuno Gomes faded Spain's hopes of advancing. The same day
Greece were defeated 2-1 by
Russia but moved ahead to claim second place on goal difference. As a result Spain were eliminated from
Euro 2004 .
Goalkeepers:
