Spain's identity and style, not star power, lifted them to Euro 2024 glory over England

BERLIN, Germany — Last time Spain won the Euros, back in 2012, it was about Xavi and Andres Iniesta, Sergio Ramos and Gerard Piqué, Iker Casillas and Sergio Busquets, Xabi Alonso and Jordi Alba. Legends of Real Madrid and Barcelona who famously — witness the pact between Xavi and Iker Casillas — put the eternal rivalry aside to coalesce into a juggernaut capable of winning three consecutive major tournaments (Euro 2008, 2010 World Cup, Euro 2012), a feat never before achieved.

This time, in 2024, it’s different, but not because this Spain side lacks superstars. Lamine Yamal, who finished the tournament with four assists, is pretty much already there, and Rodri is the best in the world at his position, though it’s telling that after he was forced off at half-time to make way for Martín Zubimendi, Spain hardly missed a beat.

Nico Williams, who scored the opener and was named player of the match, may yet ascend to such heights and so might Dani Olmo, if he can stay fit. And yes, Dani Carvajal, well into his 30s, is pretty darn special too, but play the “Combined XI game” with the 2012 side and it’s not much of a contest.

Sunday’s Euro 2024 triumph by Spain is a win for an idea, for a way of playing and working, more than it is about individuals and stars. Johan Cruyff used to say that plan B was simply believing more in plan A and executing it better; that’s what Spain did in a tournament that saw them win all seven games, six of them before the 90th minute. Nobody in Euros history had ever done that. In men’s major tournament history, the only side to achieve it was Brazil in 2002, a team so loaded with talent that its front three were Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho. (The only women’s team in any competition? The U.S. at the 2019 World Cup.)

On Sunday in Berlin, Spain set up in their 4-3-3 (though it mutated into a 4-2-3-1 when they had the ball, which was most of the time), played a possession-and-pressing game and were unafraid to go north-south with their gifted young wingers, Yamal and Williams, when the opportunity presented itself. That’s an idea and an identity, and it came together under a bespectacled Spanish Football Association apparatchik, Luis de la Fuente, a guy who spent more than a decade working internally, bouncing among the age groups. Were the Spanish FA a government ministry, he’d be the bureaucrat who devotes a lifetime to civil service and suddenly ascends to the top job.

In fact, de la Fuente has a history with these players. Fabián Ruiz, Dani Olmo and Mikel Oyarzabal — with Oyarzabal coming on to score the winner on Sunday — were key to his Under-21 side that won the Euros in 2019. So was Mikel Merino, who scored the winner against Germany in the quarterfinal. Unai Simón, Spain’s current starting keeper, was in that squad as well. Rodri, Merino and Simón were also part of his Under-19 side that won the Euros in 2015.

De la Fuente also coached Spain’s Olympic team to a silver medal in Tokyo in 2021. Who was there? Simón, Marc Cucurella, Zubimendi, Merino, Oyarzabal, Pedri (injured for this final) and Olmo.

Make no mistake about it: These were his players. This was his group. And they played his way, however much he may give off dorky substitute teacher vibes.

Spain was super-charged on the wings with Yamal and Williams and brought in a couple of French-born ringers at the back (Robin Le Normand and Aymeric Laporte), but this group wasn’t just thrown together, its roots run deep. And maybe that’s why, at each road bump in this tournament — dominating Italy in the group stage, but failing to capitalize in the first half, being taken to extra time by Germany, going a goal down to France in the semifinal — they remained unflappable and relentless. They had an idea. They had faith.

Yet that faith was tested by Gareth Southgate’s England in a first half that saw Spain’s opponents manage to slow the tempo of the game to a crawl. Space was congested and bodies were in the way; it was as if both teams played in Moon Boots and the upshot was that no real save was made by either keeper until the 45th minute.

Were Spain knocked off their stride? Nope. They had belief. They stuck to plan A and did it better, even after losing their (arguably) best player, Rodri. The goal that put them ahead did get a bit of help from some poor England defending, but it nevertheless came from de la Fuente’s playbook, with Yamal cutting in from the right and Olmo trailing into the middle. Indeed, both Yamal and Williams had excellent chances immediately after.

When Southgate made his changes — first Ollie Watkins for Harry Kane on the hour mark, then Cole Palmer for Kobbie Mainoo with 20 minutes left — and was rewarded with Palmer’s equalizer, there was a moment when you felt the momentum shift. England fans behind Simón’s goal roared in song, while the white waves in the stands grew more turbulent. England were zippier with Bellingham suddenly playing centrally with Palmer, while Foden and Saka threatened out wide and Watkins kept rampaging between the center-backs.

Time for an adjustment or tactical countermeasure to blunt the rising English tide? Nope. In fact, Yamal had perhaps the best chance of the game after Palmer leveled and shortly thereafter, Oyarzabal — who had come on for Morata at center-forward — notched the winner.

That sort of coaching, when it works, fosters confidence and bolsters the players on the pitch. So do dramatic sequences such as the late pinball in the area, with Simón making his first real save of the game off Declan Rice and then Olmo heading away Marc Guéhi‘s finish before Rice put the rebound over the bar. Bit of luck and randomness in that one? Sure, but when it goes your way, it only makes you believe even more that this is your night, and the subsequent chest bump between Cucurella and Olmo spoke volumes in this regard. Spain weren’t going to let this slip away, and they didn’t.

Credit the players, of course — always, in fact — but credit the process and the system that nurtured de la Fuente and allowed the core of this side to grow over time.

You hesitate to draw conclusions from these sorts of tournaments because they’re short and often random in nature. But when a team is this dominant, this unflappable, this eyes-on-the-prize determined, you can’t help but conclude there’s something more there. That maybe ideas and identity matter more than we think, and that you don’t need a fancy big-name guru to lead your national side (USSF, take note).

In those situations, you just need a guy with a plan, who knows how to execute and who has the players in the palm of his hands. Much like de la Fuente did as Spain won a record fourth European crown.