Spain’s Furia Roja, led by coach Luis Aragonés, have a hugely talented team that will hope to provide Spain with the springboard to be able to progress into at least the quarter-finals of the World Cup Finals, and to finally provide a desperately unsuccessful national team with some tournament glory.

Spain narrowly got into the play-off’s from their qualifying group, but then went on to thrash Slovakia 6-2 on aggregate in the play-off’s to qualify for their eighth consecutive World Cup Finals.

Even though always full of promise, Spain are the constant under-achievers at tournament level and they have been consistently disappointing in almost every major competition they have entered.

When they hosted the World Cup Finals in Spain in 1982 the Spanish, after scraping through the first group stage by goal difference over the former Yugoslavia, limped out at the second group stage. The format was different then but the results for the boys from Iberia were the same.

All too often Spain have gone through into the World Cup finals full of promise, just to get there and go out with a whimper.

In the heat of Madrid in June ‘82 Spain boasted players such as Jose Antonio Camacho, Juanito and Lopez Ufarte, they along with the rest of the squad flattered to deceive, delivering the far from princely return of 4 goals from 5 games.

They were beaten 2-1 by the eventual champions Germany, but they also were beaten by a 10 man Northern Ireland boasting Arsenal and Manchester United legends, Pat Jennings and Sammy McIlroy respectively, and then they couldn’t even beat Honduras, the first group’s whipping lambs.

Now in 2006, once again the Spaniards are one of the most technically sound teams in the field, but it is yet to be seen if they will have the killer instinct and firepower needed to go deep in the tournament. The furthest they have been in the last seven tournaments is the quarter-finals in 1994.

Arsenal’s Jose Antonio Reyes, Chelsea’s Del Horno, Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso, Fernando Morientes, and hat-trick hero from the play-off against Slovakia, Luis Garcia are all players that have played an important part in Spain’s qualification.

However, even though undefeated in qualification, they still managed to only finish second in their group to Serbia & Montenegro.

In Spain’s recent World Cup warm-up match, the team had a good result, with a 3-2 win over fellow qualifiers Ivory Coast, and that will give them confidence for their remaining warm-up matches, one of which is against Russia on March 27.

Raúl is the captain and biggest talisman for Spain, but it is yet unknown whether he will recover from a knee injury he suffered in November. Spain's all-time leading scorer and caps leader did not lead the team, however, in qualifying. That role fell to Fernando Torres who had seven goals and the young striker will also be a key factor for La Furia Roja.

They also have a choice of talented goalkeepers in Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas and Liverpool’s Pepe Reina, and a strong group of defenders, led by Carles Puyol, which conceded just five goals in qualifying. Their defence was the most consistent part of Spain's game throughout qualifying.

Midfielder Luís García, who fans voted onto UEFA's Team of 2005, has a penchant for scoring the occasional goal and can also play the setup man to perfection as he has done with Liverpool along with team-mate Xabi Alonso.

Up-front, Spain have a choice of talented strikers for Aragonés to choose from, with veterans Fernando Morientes from Liverpool and Raúl from Real Madrid, along with the youthful talent of Atlético Madrid’s Fernando Torres, Jose Antonio Reyes, and Valencia’s David Villa and Miguel Mista.

Spain have been drawn in Group H in the World Cup Finals 2006, and will be facing Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and the Ukraine.

Spain's biggest weakness is themselves and the pressure from both press and fans alike on the team every time any tournament comes around.

This time the Spaniards will be hoping to overcome the pressure, and, while the team should get through the group stages, it will be difficult for Spain to advance far in this tournament unless Aragonés can get everything to come together at the right time for the team.

All in all, Spain should see themselves progressing to the last sixteen in Germany, along with the Ukraine, but both Tunisia and Saudi Arabia will be looking to take both teams all the way in the group stage, and anything could happen.

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Spain Match Fixtures in the World Cup 2006 Finals

14-Jun-06	Spain v Ukraine	15:00 BST
19-Jun-06	Spain v Tunisia	21:00 BST
23-Jun-06	Saudi Arabia v Spain	16:00 BST

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Historic Facts

First International appearance: Spain 2 - 0 Belgium (Bilbao, Spain; 7 October 1921)

Largest win: Spain 13 - 0 Bulgaria (Madrid, Spain; 21 May 1933)

Worst defeat: Italy 7 - 1 Spain (Amsterdam, Netherlands; 4 June 1928)
Worst defeat: England 7 - 1 Spain (London, England; 9 December 1931)

World Cup Finals Appearances: 1934, 1950, 1962, 1966, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002

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Spain Match Results - Europe World Cup Qualifiers Group 7

Date	Match	Result
12-Oct-2005	San Marino - Spain	0:6 (0:3)
07-Sep-2005	Spain - Serbia & Montenegro	1:1 (1:0)
08-Jun-2005	Spain - Bosnia-Herzegovina	1:1 (0:1)
04-Jun-2005	Spain - Lithuania	1:0 (0:0)
30-Mar-2005	Serbia & Montenegro - Spain	0:0
09-Feb-2005	Spain - San Marino	5:0 (3:0)
13-Oct-2004	Lithuania - Spain	0:0
09-Oct-2004	Spain - Belgium	2:0 (0:0)
08-Sep-2004	Bosnia-Herzegovina - Spain	1:1 (0:0)

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