Out with the old: The decision to drop Raul helped Spain to unite as a team

'They never played as a team. The togetherness wasn't there but Xavi and Iker Casillas created that. It helped that there was such depth of talent that there was no big leader.

'At club level, Real Madrid and Barcelona always had foreigners who were the leaders and Spanish players were always followers.

'When Spain played against those leaders, like Hristo Stoichkov, they would find it difficult. That's changed. Casillas, Xavi, Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique are the leaders.'

It is impossible to ignore the Barcelona factor in this rise. Seven of the team that started in the World Cup final were from Barca and Vicente del Bosque has named eight of Pep Guardiola's players in the 23-man squad for Wembley.

Barcelona have played football with a heavy Dutch accent since Johan Cruyff arrived in the Catalan city in 1973 and they raise footballers at their academy La Masia under this philosophy. They play a modern version of Total Football. Tiki-taka, it has been branded.

« Previous123456789101112Next »