MADRID: Spain have spent the last two years making international football look like a problem someone else has to solve and as the World Cup looms the question for the other 47 teams is blunt enough — who can stop Luis de la Fuente’s red machine?
The European champions arrive at the tournament with a record fourth continental title behind them, a dazzling collective identity and the air of a side who have discovered the rarest of tournament ingredients — style with steel.
Their Euro 2024 triumph in Germany was not built on one irresistible individual but on a swarm of them.
Spain won every match, played fast, direct, fearless football and repeatedly found answers from the bench when matches began asking awkward questions.
The final against England told the story neatly.
