ENGLAND REIGN IN SPAIN

I thought we were a little fortunate to get away with the 3-2 win last night, but the newspapers have shed huge praise all over Gareth's youngsters and then fair enough, we scored more goals that the Spanish, that's what will be read in the history books. Overall the two countries have met 27 times, surprisingly few, with England winning 14 and Spain 10, including the most recent games.

Spain joined FIFA in 1904 and formed the Spanish Football Federation in 1909. Their international debut was in August 1920 against Denmark in the Olympics. Spain won 1-0 and ended up with a silver medal.
The Spanish War of Independence and World War One (and Two for that matter) did not help Spain's development in football, for example, there was no international football between 1934 and 1950.
Where regional nationalism was at its strongest and football closely aligned to it, the national team and championships generated most conflict. On occasion football could function as a "unifier" but often as not, an arena for conflict and dissent.
Spain was the first country amongst neighbours France and Italy to  create a national league in 1928, having legalised professionalism in 1926. There were no amateurs in strength, as such to put obstacles in front of professionalism and commercialism was quick to take up the business; there was no maximum wage for example.

The first fixture between England and Spain was on the 15th May 1929 in Madrid which Spain won 4-3 in front of 50,000. Tommy Cooper from Liverpool played at right back and Joe Carter scored 2. Edgar Kail who played for Dulwich Hamlet, was the last non-league amateur to win a full cap for England. (He won the FA Amateur Cup with the Hamlet in 1920 and in 1932) An experienced amateur international he won his third and final cap in Spain the last match of a European Tour that started in France (W 4-1) and Belgium (W 5-1). There is a road named after him on the approach to Champion Hill, Dulwich Hamlet's ground, Edgar Kail Way. His name is still sung by Hamlet fans even today!

The next contest was in December 1931 with England winning 7-1 at Highbury.

In 1950, after another gap due to the Second WW, England and Spain met in the Brazilian World Cup with England going down 0-1. You should know what happened to England in this tournament.
There were two UEFA Championship ties in 1968, another World Cup tie in 1982 (0-0), another UEFA Q-F at Wembley in 1996 (0-0 win on pens) and now the two European Nations League games. Many pundits have questioned the wisdom of this extra tournament and its value, but they should be delighted now, having seen this valuable contest played in such spirit, spoilt only by our hooligans.
La Furia Rioja