England face what may be the toughest test in international football when they take on Spain, a side whose defensive record at the recent World Cup borders on the historic. Luis de la Fuente's team conceded just one goal across eight matches en route to lifting the trophy, allowing opponents a combined 2.37 expected goals — barely 0.30 per 90 minutes. Breaking down the world champions' backline has proven close to impossible for anyone who has tried.
Thomas Tuchel, addressing the challenge in a recent press conference, suggested he wanted his players to emulate Spain's control for spells of the match, controlling possession when required. Yet the data suggests that trying to out-pass Spain is a losing strategy. Instead, the manager himself may have hinted at the more realistic route to goal, describing English football's traditional preference for directness over patient buildup. "There is no heritage of: 'Oh, let's control around the middle line. Let's do a deep buildup and then bring them out,'" Tuchel said. "It's just like: 'Come on. Let's kick the ball into the opponent's box and fight with them.'"
History backs up this theory. Spain's only two defeats under De la Fuente both came on British soil, and both were built around crosses. Scotland stunned them 2-0 at Hampden Park during Euro qualifying in March 2023, with Scott McTominay scoring twice — his second arriving after he attacked the box to convert following a Kieran Tierney delivery that David García failed to deal with. Spain's midfielder Rodri was blunt in his assessment afterwards, remarking, "For me, this is not football" — an admission that unconventional, physical approaches had disrupted his side's usual rhythm.
A similar pattern emerged when Colombia beat Spain 1-0 in a friendly at London's Olympic Stadium last year, with Luis Díaz supplying a cross from the left that Daniel Muñoz finished. Both defeats shared a common thread: width and deliveries into the box rather than intricate passing through the centre.
The numbers from this year's World Cup reinforce the pattern. Over 750 minutes of football, Spain allowed just six chances rated above 0.1 expected goals — the average value of a shot in the modern game. Even lowering the threshold to 0.07 xG only turns up ten opportunities across the entire tournament. Opponents needed to work for roughly 75 minutes on average just to fashion a shot with better than a one-in-fourteen chance of scoring.
Strikingly, the single highest-value chance conceded by Spain all tournament came in the 121st minute of the final itself, when Giuliano Simeone fired over the bar from a move that started via a corner. Spain's only goal conceded, scored by Charles De Ketelaere for Belgium, stemmed from a Timothy Castagne cross, while all four of the