“It’s all about rondos. Rondo, rondo, rondo. Every. Single. Day,” Xavi Hernández once said, but nobody expected it inside the opposition’s penalty area. And yet here was Spain’s new generation, European champions like his, doing exactly what he demanded – “Pum-pum-pum-pumalways one touch” – just a few metres from Ugurcan Cakir’s goal. Which, when the whole perfect sequence finally played out in Konya, Turkey, is where the ball concluded its journey.
The question now is where they will conclude their own. Can they, like Xavi’s generation, the most successful in history, follow the European Championship with a World Cup? Watching them play on Sunday night, nine months before the tournament’s opening at the Azteca stadium, the answer can only be yes. Watching the second of the six goals they scored, especially.
For 75 seconds Spain had the ball. Every player got it, taking 66 touches between them, the ball worked from one end to the other without Turkey getting any. Only worked doesn’t feel like quite the right word. A symphony, El País called it, which is what the sports daily AS called it too. Marca said to hang it in the Prado. When Pedri played it to Marc Cucurella on the left of the box, his ball, delivered first time, found Nico Williams inside the area. One touch in to Mikel Oyarzabal. One touch in to Mikel Merino. One touch in to the net. Pum-pum-pum-pumand Spain were 2-0 up.
They had been playing 21 minutes. Spain led inside six when Pedri dropped the shoulder, glided past Hakan Calhanoglu and guided a shot into the corner. And that had been coming: Cakir had made two superb saves already. Spain had taken five shots on target by the time they got the second; by the end, they had scored six, could have got 10, and they had called it a night on the hour, something like perfection achieved already. Merino was waiting for his teammates to finish scrawling on the ball, Pedri had scored twice, Oyarzabal had three assists and Lamine Yamal two, the forwards providing for the midfielders.
“For those of us who love football, it’s a joy to see them play; Spain have the qualities to emulate what they did between 2008 and 2012,” Turkey’s coach, Vincenzo Montella, said, and that was before the match. After it, everyone else was inclined to agree. Euphoria may not always be advisable, but it was unavoidable. “We thought we would never see anything like the Spain of Casillas, Xavi, Villa or Iniesta, but this generation that Luis de la Fuente leads appears ready to outdo what their colleagues did between 2008 and 2012,” Marca wrote. “It is impossible to escape the favourite’s tag ahead of next summer.”
Victory in Turkey put Spain top of their qualifying group with two wins from two, nine scored and none conceded. But it wasn’t the fact that they won, it was how they did it, that it is no fluke, no one-off. It was their second-highest away victory – the previous was in Liechtenstein in 2017 – and the 27th competitive game without a defeat, statistically speaking: Portugal beat them on penalties in the Nations League. Before that, the last defeat was in Scotland, at the start of De la Fuente’s reign, which had seemed destined to be brief. Instead, they won the Nations League in 2023 and the European Championship in 2024. Few had expected success then; now they do.
There may never have been a better European champion side. Spain won all seven games and beat Italy, Germany, France and England en route to the title. When it was put to Morata pre-tournament that Spain no longer have the kind of players that can aspire to the Ballon d’Or, so they couldn’t really anticipate going much beyond the quarters, he insisted: “Rodri could easily have won it last year; all he lacks is marketing. I always tell him that. We have Pedri, who is different. And I’m sure Nico and Lamine will be there in the future.” When he left the Olympic Stadium in Berlin with the medal around his neck, there was a smile, a reminder: turns out the captain has an eye for a player.
Rodri did win it. Dani Carvajal was fourth. Fabián Ruiz, largely forgotten 18 months ago, is nominated this year. Lamine Yamal is a candidate. Euro 2024 showed they were good enough, a month changing everything, externally at least. Internally, they always believed, they said. Besides, there’s a fuel, too, in making fools of people; doubters drive you. “We might not have had ‘names’ but we were convinced we had players who were top three in the world, and we were clear that while there were teams with very good individuals, as a group we were stronger,” Oyarzabal said.
There was a guiding philosophy too, shared through generations. De la Fuente noted on Sunday night that he has known many of these players “since they were kids … and now they are superstars”. He has always said they are the best in the world; here, they looked like it, the level almost absurd, the football played ridiculous at times. “Incredible,” De la Fuente called it. “I’m very proud to manage a group like this, at professional and personal level. There is a model, an idea, that was established years ago in the federation and we’re continuing that. What we’re achieving now is the fruit of many years of work.”
And yet there is an evolution, too: a depth, a variety, things that have changed for the better, seen in Berlin and beyond. If Spain’s second goal in Konya would have delighted Xavi, Spain’s ideologue, a defender of their footballing faith, it wasn’t all about that. That was evident in Germany last summer and in Turkey on Sunday night. Spain broke through too, unstoppable when up and running. Ferran Torres’s goal was born of a long ball.
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“We know we have the ability to play with the ball, to combine, to be associative, but also that we have the players with the speed to counter, to transition,” De la Fuente said. “What we do is give them the scenario they are most comfortable with and they do it. If they didn’t have those qualities, it would be impossible. They interpret it perfectly.”
If Euro 2024 showed they were good enough, there are elements that suggest an improvement since then. Lamine Yamal, a 16-year-old the night Spain reached the final, already doing outrageous things, is older. His progression shows no sign of slowing, the pressure seemingly something he welcomes, with other dimensions added to his game, starting with ever greater responsibility. On Sunday night there were moments when it was less about fantasy, more about physique, opponents beaten by speed and strength, too.
If he is not the best player in the world, perhaps a teammate is: there may be no one anywhere playing like Pedri. Over these two internationals, De la Fuente has played him in the deeper role Hansi Flick found for him and from where he dominates everything. Merino has effectively swapped with him: no, he is not about to become the No 9, but that shift has been good for him, new roles learned. And behind them Dean Huijsen, who made his debut in March, offers a range of passing and a willingness to step out of defence which is felt in every line. Carvajal and Rodri are still to return to their best after injury, and there is time. “This is a team that has an ability to improve and do things well that escape my imagination,” the coach said.
Expectation is inevitable; it is also an extra pressure. It can carry the risk of relaxation too. Can win is not will win; sometimes it is the opposite.
Not here, they hope. “This generation is insatiable,” De la Fuente said. “We will be prudent, we know there is a lot to be done still. Football changes from one week to the next. But this group will never take its feet off the ground, you can rest assured on that.
“We have the best footballers in the world, but we also choose good people. They know they have a chance of achieving very important things and they will never let that opportunity pass them by because of an excess of vanity, arrogance or anything like it.”
