With the World Cup 2026 well won, to add to the 2024 European Championships and with la Roja back at the top of the FIFA World Rankings, Luis de la Fuente can do no wrong.
The 65-year-old head coach has worked his way through the Spanish international ranks, managing the U19, U21 and Olympic teams before taking over the senior squad in 2022. He loves to work with young players and has coached the best out of the likes Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi, as well as working the likes of Dani Olmo, Mikel Oyarzabal, Fabian Ruiz and Unai Simon when he was the U21 coach.
Spain were worthy champions as the clearly best side on the competition, scoring 14 goals and conceding just one, and that after opening with a 0-0 draw with newcomers Cape Verde, winning the next seven games with only Belgium able to breach the Roja defence. The semi-final win over France, who had been attacking with menace and flair throughout the competition, was particularly impressive as they restricted Les Bleus to a handful of half chances while opening up the French resistance twice, the first a penalty won by Yamal and converted by Oyarzabal and the second a Pedro Porro finish after good work from Olmo.
La Roja subdued France with their possession-based approach with emphasis on positional play, passing in triangles with slickness and accuracy while stealing the ball off the French if they dithered for a second. De la Fuente’s side keep their possession-based philosophy regardless of the match situation and, while it did not work against Cape Verde, the Blue Sharks were the outliers as all other team succumbed to the pressure.
Spain are always positive in possession and will shift the ball out wide to Yamal or Nico Williams when they find space or they will play the ball in behind when Olmo or Oyarzabal makes a well-timed run. And while they play in triangles and look to maintain possession, they will play expansive balls with wingbacks, particularly Marc Cucurella joining the attack by making overlapping or inverted runs, and when the ball goes wide to the wingers Mikel Merino and Oyarzabal are the beneficiaries.
While La Roja is an attack-minded team, its defence is guarded by Player of the Tournament Rodri, who breaks up play and moves the ball quickly on with the philosophy of possession held dear. The SBOTOP World Cup 2026 betting odds backed La Roja from the off and De la Fuente and his players hardly put a foot wrong.
Albicelste roll back the years
While Spain’s possession-based and attack-minded play is easy on the eye, Lionel Scaloni’s Argentina adopted a ‘win at all costs’ mentality later in the competition, heavily dependent on talisman Lionel Messi and with an aggressive approach reminiscent of World Cups of decades ago. This antagonistic approach certainly unsettled England in the semi-final but it fell flat in the final against Spain.
Against lesser opposition, La Albiceleste plays possession football, like Spain and like to move quickly, often playing through the middle with Enzo Fernández pulling the strings and Messi, who is passive out of possession, dropping deeper to pick up the ball when Argentina are on the attack. But while they wanted to play like Spain, La Roja had the better players and so Scaloni’s men resorted to some rough-house tactics, described as anti-football by a UK commentator; maybe bitter that Argentina had just beaten England in the semi-final! But while Spain, with 65 per cent possession and 20 shots, 12 on target, were playing all the football, Argentina’s first shot (of two) came in extra time, and they ended up with two red cards, one for Fernandez and one for Leandro Paredes who maybe didn’t realise the game had ended when he carried on assaulting the Spain players!
The dark arts worked against England who, after going ahead against Argentina, eventually fell to goals from Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez who scored late as Messi clicked into gear to inspire the best part of Argentina’s game, fast attacking football. In fairness to Scaloni, his team’s World Cup results showed they are not just a team of bruisers; they are the second best in the world.
England fans were disappointed that their manager Thomas Tuchel went on the defensive when they were leading against Argentina. For much of the competition the Three Lions played high-energy football, with Jude Bellingham making strong runs and scoring seven goals, while wingers Antony Gordon and Bukayo Saka saw plenty of the ball. The England manager is a proven winner, so I won’t criticise and his players looked weary, but they were certainly better when they kept their tempo high.
Tuchel rang the changes for the third-place play-off as the Three Lions went goal crazy, scoring six goals against France to leave a sense of ‘what might have been?’ They have a fine manager in my view but I’m not sure even he could have outwitted De la Fuente in a final.
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