Euro 2012 team profiles

Spain
Team Profile: The defending champions are ranked best in the world by FIFA and second by UEFA. Having won Euro 2008, they went on to be crowned world champions at the World Cup in South Africa two years later. Now they have the chance to make history by winning back-to-back European Championships – only the USSR and West Germany have come close, reaching the final as defending champions in 1964 and 1976 respectively, but falling at the last hurdle. Before their recent success, the Spanish were considered major underachievers, but this generation of Spaniards – largely made up of Barcelona players, boasting the likes of Xavi, Iniesta and Villa – has dazzled with its so-called ‘tiki-taka’ football. Yet there is a small suggestion that the tides may have begun to turn – note Barcelona’s elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Chelsea this season, plus there’s Spain’s unwanted record of the fewest goals ever scored by a World Cup-winning team. Still, you’d be daft to bet against them.