Spain's quest to win back the Nations League

Spain hold the World Cup and the European Championship at the same time. They have held the Nations League as well, beating Croatia on penalties in Rotterdam in June 2023, so this autumn is a recovery job rather than a first attempt. What they do not have is the current title, because Portugal took it off them in Munich in June 2025.

That is the competition they start at Wembley on 26 September, which is worth knowing before you look at the England vs Spain betting odds and assume a team of world champions will treat matchday one as an exhibition.

The lazy read on Spain this autumn is that they have nothing left to win. Their own recent record says otherwise.

Two shoot-outs, two different endings

The 2023 final finished 0-0 after extra time and Spain won 5-4 on penalties, Unai Simon saving from Lovro Majer and Bruno Petkovic before Dani Carvajal scored the last of them. It was the first trophy of Luis de la Fuente's time in charge and the first Spain had won since Euro 2012.

Two years later the same competition took it back off them. Spain led Portugal twice in Munich and drew 2-2, with Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Oyarzabal scoring and Nuno Mendes and Cristiano Ronaldo answering. Portugal won 5-3 on penalties once Diogo Costa had saved from Alvaro Morata, and became the first nation to win the Nations League twice. Spain had beaten France 5-4 in a semi-final three days earlier, so they left Germany having conceded six goals in two matches.

For a side built on control, that was the outlier. It is also the only European final de la Fuente has lost.

Portugal remain the holders and start this season in group four of League A with Denmark, Norway and Wales. If Spain want the trophy back, the route runs through a two-legged quarter-final in March and a finals week in June 2027.

The World Cup changed how you have to play them

Spain conceded once in the whole tournament in North America. The goal came in a 2-1 quarter-final win over Belgium, and it was the only one they let in across eight matches.

Their group was no gift either. They drew 0-0 with Cabo Verde in Atlanta, beat Saudi Arabia 4-0, then won 1-0 in Guadalajara against Uruguay. Austria went out 3-0, Portugal 1-0, France 2-0, and Argentina lost the final 1-0 when Ferran Torres scored in the 106th minute.

Five knockout opponents managed one goal between them. That is the figure England have to sit with, because it suggests this fixture will not be settled by outscoring Spain.

The group is harder than a champion would want

Spain were drawn with England, Croatia and Czechia in Brussels in February, the toughest of the four League A groups on paper. Only two of the four reach a quarter-final. One finishes third and spends March defending its place in the top division. One is relegated.

Then there is the calendar. FIFA has merged the old September and October breaks into a single 16-day window because the World Cup ran for six weeks, so Spain play matchday one at Wembley and matchdays two, three and four inside the following 10 days.

Windows like that are decided by squad depth rather than by form. Spain host Croatia on 29 September, travel to Czechia, then meet Croatia again on 6 October.

The Wembley part

England v Spain kicks off at 7:45pm on Saturday 26 September and the stadium is sold out. It is Spain's first match of any kind since they lifted the World Cup at MetLife Stadium on 19 July.

Betfair carry the market for it alongside their betting offers page. What no price can tell you is which Spain turns up, because a first game after winning a World Cup is the one fixture in the calendar with no useful precedent for these players.

Why England should not read too much into it either way

The reverse fixture is in Spain on 15 November, the final match of the group, and that is the one more likely to decide anything. Spain have not lost to England since a 3-2 defeat in Seville in October 2018, and England have not beaten them in consecutive meetings since a run of seven straight wins that ended in 1980.

The overall head-to-head still favours England, 14 wins to 11 across 28 meetings, but that is a record built largely before Spain became this good. Most of England's wins came in the decades when Spain had never won a major tournament at all.

Spain arrive in London as world and European champions, carrying a Nations League title from 2023 that Portugal have since made look like history. Wembley is where they start trying to make it current again.