On Sunday night England and Spain will face-off in Berlin’s Olympiastadion with the Euro 2024 title on the line.
The two nations have locked horns on 27 occasions over the past 95 years, but only six of those have come in major competitions and only three of them have ended in draws.
England have run out winners on 10 occasions with Spain winning 14, including five of the eight matches played across the past 20 years.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane with the Three Lions and La Roja to uncover their five most important meetings, shall we?
Spain 🆚 England
Berlin. Sunday.#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/f1NqmQfOpO
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) July 10, 2024
Spain 1-0 England – 1950 World Cup
The first competitive meeting of the two nations came in Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Maracana stadium at the 1950 World Cup.
England had already suffered a humiliating 1-0 defeat to the USA in Pool Two and needed to beat Spain to progress to the knockout rounds.
Jackie Milburn saw an early header ruled out for offside and Tom Finney hit the crossbar after the break, but the only goal arrived on 48 minutes when Telmo Zarra beat keeper Bert Williams to the ball to fire home.
England’s team also featured Billy Wright, Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen but had to come home in ignominy.
Spain 1-2 England – Euro 68 quarter-final second leg
I know, you probably don’t remember this either…
The World Cup winners, England of course, were seeking to qualify for one of just four spots in the finals of Euro 68. Yep, the last-eight was a qualifier.
Bobby Charlton scored the only goal in the first leg at Wembley to give Alf Ramsay’s side a slender lead to take to the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid for the second leg.
That advantage was wiped out by Amancio’s early goal, only for Martin Peters to head England level on the night and ahead in the tie.
Norman ‘bite yer legs’ Hunter fired the winner with the aid of a deflection eight minutes from time to ensure England reached their first European Championships proper.
Paul Mariner ( England)
World Cup ESPAÑA82, Spain vs England0-0
at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu
in Madrid, Spain on 5 July 1982
Photo by Masahide tomikoshi / TOMIKOSHI PHOTOGRAPHY pic.twitter.com/cGauszbkrd— tphoto (@tphoto2005) July 11, 2024
Spain 0-0 England – 1982 World Cup
England’s next visit to the Bernabeu 14 years later did not end nearly so well.
Ron Greenwood’s side needed to win by two goals to progress to the semi-finals against the host nation, who had lost 1-0 against Northern Ireland in the first of two group phases and were already out of contention for the last four.
They were second best for most of the game and were missing the wizardry of Glenn Hoddle, whom Greenwood did not select, while Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking were blighted by injury and only came off the bench for the closing stages in their first action of the tournament.
The stalemate ensured Germany went through as group winners while England limped home and Greenwood lost his job.
A memorable shootout win for the #ThreeLions over Spain at @wembleystadium during EURO 96 👏#OnThisDay 26 years ago…pic.twitter.com/oUzvtF3oxX
— England (@England) June 22, 2022
England 0-0 Spain (England win 4-2 on pens) – Euro 96 quarter-final
England’s demolition of the Dutch a few days earlier ensured they topped their group with seven points, having already drawn with Switzerland and beaten Scotland.
Straight into the last-eight in those days, before the expansion to 24 teams in 2016 and Terry Venables’ side were pitted against Javier Clemente’s Spain.
La Roja learned the lessons from the Dutch game and kept it tight, fashioning a couple of chances themselves only to see goals from Kiko and Julio Salinas disallowed for offside – the second incorrectly.
Alan Shearer missed the target from close range after a Paul Gascoigne cross in the final 20 minutes and then neither side were able to find the golden goal – introduced for the first time – to win the tie and avoid penalties.
Fernando Hierro hit the bar from Spain’s first attempt, Stuart Pearce exorcised the demons of 1990 and David Seaman sent England through as he parried away the decisive penalty from defender Miguel Angel Nadal – whose nephew Rafa went on to be pretty good at tennis.
📆 OTD | 2 years ago today England recorded their first victory in Spain for 31 years.
🇪🇸 Spain 2-3 England 🏴
⚽️ Sterling (16’, 38’)
⚽️ Rashford (29’) pic.twitter.com/9S20QYgJFk— England Football Fans (@EnglidsAway) October 15, 2020
Spain 2-3 England – Nations League – October 2018
This was the most recent encounter between the two Euro 2024 finalists and saw Gareth Southgate’s men register an eye-catching win in Seville to inflict a first competitive home defeat on La Roja in 15 years and become the first side ever to score three goals against them on home soil.
The youngest England side in two decades produced an incisive display of counter-attacking football and went ahead on 16 minutes when Marcus Rashford freed Raheem Sterling to lash home the opener.
Just before the half-hour Harry Kane held off two defenders and threaded Rashford through to double the lead and it was 3-0 after just 38 minutes when Kane squared to Sterling (arguably three months too late) to convert from close range.
The hosts did improve after the break and Paco Alcacer pulled one back seconds after coming off the bench and Rodrigo might have had a penalty after dispossessing Jordan Pickford.
Ramos headed home deep into stoppage-time but there was no time left for his side to mount a comeback.
The game is also remembered for Eric Dier’s completely unnecessary yet thunderous challenge on local hero Sergio Ramos which earned him a yellow card despite being completely clean.
Who will come out on top in the latest instalment of the rivalry and which players will write their names into folklore? Not long to wait now.
