Spain overcomes its World Cup group undefeated for the seventh time

The Spanish men’s soccer team qualified this Friday for the round of 32 of the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada after beating Uruguay 0-1 in Guadalajara and did so as first in Group H and as undefeated, the latter something they achieved for the seventh time in their 17 participations.

Spain fulfilled the predictions and surpassed the group stage of the event, although it did not do so with the expected brilliance after drawing without goals against the debutant Cape Verde, beating Saudi Arabia (4-0) and winning in a hard-fought and long-suffering match against the two-time world champion with a solitary goal from Álex Baena.

The current European champion, who is already waiting for a rival in the first meeting between Austria and Algeria, who meet this Saturday tied on points in the fight for second place in Group J, did not offer their best football, but they did leave few gaps in defense, closing their group without conceding and without Unai Simón having barely had to intervene, repeating what happened two summers ago in the 2024 European Championship in Germany where they won their three games in the first phase without receiving any goal.

With this solidity, the ‘Red’, which has already accumulated 34 official matches without losing, surpassed its initial group in a World Cup for the eleventh time in its history after doing so in Brazil’50, Spain’82, Mexico’86, Italy’90, United States’94, South Korea-Japan 2002, Germany 2006, South Africa 2010, Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, and the seventh without losing no meeting.

The first time they achieved it was in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, where they achieved full victories against England, the United States and Chile, although in the second group they could only draw with Uruguay, falling to Sweden and Brazil to finish in fourth position.

The next time they went undefeated was in Italia’90 where, after starting with a tie with Uruguay, they beat South Korea and Belgium to go first and be eliminated in the round of 16 by Yugoslavia. In the United States, in 1994, they repeated, finishing second in their group after Germany, with whom they tied, as well as with South Korea, while they beat Bolivia. After beating Switzerland in the round of 16, they were eliminated in the quarterfinals against Italy.

Subsequently, they chained two other group stages where they again achieved full victories. In 2002 they beat Slovenia, Paraguay and South Africa and left that World Cup in the quarterfinals without losing a game after their draws against the Republic of Ireland in the round of 16, through penalties, and against the co-host South Korea, executioner from the eleven meters.

Four years later, in Germany, the ‘Red’ repeated their group triumphs alongside Ukraine, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, but lost in the round of 16 against France, while after being champion in South Africa, losing their first match and signing a fiasco in Brazil in 2014 where they did not make it past the group stage, they once again surpassed their group without losing in Russia in 2018, although with only one victory, against Iran, and two draws against Portugal and Morocco.

Furthermore, the Spanish team maintains its undefeated statistic since losing its first two games in Brazil 2014 against the Netherlands and Chile. Since then, in their next twelve matches, only one defeat, in Qatar four years ago against Japan (2-1), although only five wins: against Australia (2014), Iran (2018), Costa Rica (2022) and Saudi Arabia and Uruguay (2026).