When Spain and England were drawn into the same group for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, it was their first competitive match.
Both sides had triumphed in their opening tournament games, with Spain defeating the United States 3-1 and England overcoming Chile 2-0 at the Maracana.
But while Spain went on to upset Chile, England lost to the United States 1-0 in one of their most embarrassing losses ever. It was therefore imperative that England prevail in their match against Spain on July 2 in Rio de Janeiro.
Legendary forward Telmo Zarra’s goal gave Spain a 1-0 victory. Spain qualified to the four-team final round, when they lost 6-1 to Brazil and 3-1 to Sweden after drawing with eventual champions Uruguay. England was eliminated.
At Spain 82, World Cup ambitions come to an end.
In order to get to the final round of Euro 1968, England defeated Spain in a home-and-away quarterfinal. The two teams later faced off at the 1980 Euros, where they were eliminated in the group stage.
Their subsequent competitive match was during the 1982 World Cup, where they were paired with West Germany in a three-team pool during the second group stage.
Before facing Ron Greenwood’s English team in Madrid, the Germans had already been eliminated from their own championship after drawing with England and defeating Spain.
With a 0-0 draw as the result, England was eliminated from the competition without dropping a single game. Italy ultimately defeated West Germany in the championship game after they had advanced to the semifinals.
Pearce’s penalty during Euro 96
Although the two countries didn’t often meet, their quarterfinal Euro 96 meeting produced one of the most memorable moments in English football history.
After extra time, the match at Wembley finished 0-0, forcing a penalty shootout. Fernando Hierro threw the initial kick off the bar for Spain. Stuart Pearce, who had failed in England’s shootout loss to West Germany in the 1990 World Cup semi-final, was one of their scorers as they converted four out of four.
Rafael Nadal’s uncle, Miguel Angel Nadal, made a save against David Seaman to send England into the semi-finals where they lost to Germany on penalties when current manager Gareth Southgate missed the game-winning kick.
• Cordially disagreed
Racist taunts shouted at a number of visiting players marred a friendly match between Spain and England that ended in a 1-0 Spain victory at the Santiago Bernabeu in November 2004.
Raul stopped a penalty kick, but Asier del Horno’s early goal gave Spain the victory, but it was an unpleasant evening. Shaun Wright-Phillips and Ashley Cole were the targets of “clear racist chanting.”
Wayne Rooney of England was also replaced prior to halftime in order to avoid receiving a red card for altercations with many players from Spain.
• England wins their Nations League match.
The teams will play each other in the final on Sunday for the first time since the end of 2018, when they met in the group stage of the first-ever UEFA Nations League.
September saw Spain win 2-1 at Wembley, but just over a month later, England triumphed 3-2 in the rematch in Seville to exact retribution. England led 3-0 at the break thanks to goals from Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford. In the second half, Spain responded with goals from Paco Alcacer and Sergio Ramos.
After winning their group, which also included Croatia, England advanced to the finals, where they defeated Switzerland on penalties after losing 3-1 to the Netherlands in the semifinals. They finished third.
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