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World Cup History - Spain Spain head to South Africa as one of the favourites to win the World Cup, but to do so they must erase a history in the tournament which is littered with underachievement.
They shook off their reputation for choking on the big stage as they were crowned European champions in 2008, and two years on they will now be targeting a first world title.
Spain played at their first finals in 1934 when they reached the quarter-finals before bowing out to hosts Italy.
They withdrew from the following tournament, in 1938, due to the outbreak of civil war and then did not get a chance to play again for another 12 years, when they reached their best position in the competition to date in 1950 when Brazil hosted the first World Cup finals after the Second World War.
The tournament was uniquely configured, with the winner decided by a round-robin format between the four teams who topped the initial four groups. Spain held the top spot in Group B, seeing off England, Chile and the USA, but eventually found Uruguay, Brazil and Sweden too strong for them as they finished the tournament in fourth place.
They did not qualify for the next two finals, but returned for Chile 1962 where they finished bottom of their group after suffering defeats to eventual finalists Czechoslovakia and Brazil.
Despite beating Switzerland in England in 1966, Spain could only finish third in Group 2 behind West Germany and Argentina as their World Cup hopes faded once again.
It was another 12 years before they were able to compete again, but they still only managed to reach the group stage in Argentina after being drawn against Brazil, Austria and Sweden.
However, things began to look up in 1982 when Spain hosted the tournament for the first time. It was the 12th World Cup, and the biggest, with 24 nations taking part. Spain managed to get through the first stage but were bottom of their group in the second phase behind West Germany and England.
The quarter-finals were achieved in 1986 after they thrashed Denmark 5-1 in the second round, with Emilio Butragueno becoming the first player since Eusebio in 1966 to score four goals in a World Cup match. They eventually lost out to Belgium on penalties.
They reached the quarter-finals again in 1994, losing to Italy and then failed to get out of a first-round group containing Nigeria, Paraguay and Bulgaria in 1998. In 2002, Spain won another quarter-final place after they got the better of the Republic of Ireland with a 3-2 penalty triumph. However, South Korea took them to penalties once again thanks to some dreadful refereeing decisions, and the co-hosts won the shoot-out 5-3.
Spain made a flying start to the 2006 finals in Germany, winning all three group games before losing 3-1 to eventual finalists France in the last 16.
Their Euro 2008 success has put a great pressure to succeed on Vicente Del Bosque's side in South Africa, and it remains to be seen how they will handle it.
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