Luis de la Fuente arrived in late 2022 with a CV built almost entirely inside the federation's youth pipeline, and the appointment was met with scepticism that the 2024 European Championship answered emphatically. That triumph, Spain's first major trophy since 2012, reconnected this generation to the lineage of the 2008-2010-2012 sides without trying to replicate them; de la Fuente has been pragmatic where his predecessors were dogmatic. Ranked second by FIFA and arriving off a smooth qualification, Spain are among the small cluster of genuine favourites. The expectation is no longer recovery or transition. It is winning a second world title.
Key players
Tactical setup: who plays where, the manager's preferred shape, how they want to control the game.
Pedri is the metronome around whom this midfield turns. The Barcelona playmaker contributed 2 goals and 11 assists in 41 appearances, with 78 key passes and 11 big chances created, and his defensive returns — 72 tackles, 34 interceptions, 215 ball recoveries — underline how much ground he covers alongside Rodri. The Manchester City holder, returning from injury, logged 33 appearances and 2,201 minutes, his 46 aerials won and 49 tackles restoring the screen Spain leaned on so heavily before. At the back, Pau Cubarsí has hardened quickly: 61 tackles, 42 interceptions and 90 aerial duels won across 46 appearances, numbers that justify his place ahead of more experienced centre-backs. Lamine Yamal, starts the tournament in recovery — 24 goals, 17 assists and 19.0 xG from 43 games, with 212 dribbles completed, a supreme talent the world will be waiting to watch.
Predicted XI
Form going into the tournament
De la Fuente's 4-2-3-1 is really a possession shell that morphs in build-up, with Rodri dropping between the centre-backs to let the full-backs — Marcos Llorente on the right, Marc Cucurella on the left — push high and narrow the pitch. Pedri operates as the deeper progressor alongside him, freeing Dani Olmo to roam between the lines behind Mikel Oyarzabal. The press is aggressive but selective, triggered on wide passes, and the defensive line sits high enough that Pau Cubarsí's recovery pace becomes load-bearing. Two questions linger. The striker slot remains contested, with Oyarzabal favoured over more direct options but not untouchable. And the centre-back pairing leans heavily on Aymeric Laporte's legs holding up; if they don't, the space behind that high line is the obvious route in.
Team form
Group H opens against Cape Verde (FIFA 69) and Saudi Arabia (61), two fixtures Spain should navigate without alarm, before a sharper finale against Uruguay (17) that will likely decide top spot and the shape of the bracket. Assuming the draw breaks as our model projects — and the actual opponents will hinge on group permutations and third-placed qualifiers — the route runs through Austria (24) in the Round of 32, a probable Round of 16 tie with Colombia (13), and a quarter-final against Türkiye (22) that should be navigable. The real examination arrives in a projected semi-final with France, with Portugal the modelled final opponent. Predicted finish: Winners. Anything from the semi-finals onwards counts as success; elimination before the last four would register as genuine disappointment.
