There are runs of form, and then there is whatever Spain are currently serving up. Luis de la Fuente's side have not lost a game in normal or extra ti...
There are runs of form, and then there is whatever Spain are currently serving up. Luis de la Fuente's side have not lost a game in normal or extra time for 37 matches, a staggering sequence that, as GoalZaza can confirm, matches the best such stretch by any European nation. The 2. 0 dismantling of France in the semi final was another masterclass in control, a performance that made Kylian Mbappe look like a man searching for answers rather than the tournament's most dangerous attacker. They have the Ballon d'Or winner in Rodri pulling the strings from deep, wingers who can turn a game in a heartbeat, and a defensive structure that has become almost impossible to breach.Yet here is the nuance that separates a truly historic side from a merely excellent one. Spain's "unbeaten" tag comes with a significant caveat. They lost the 2025 Nations League final to Portugal on penalties. While the statisticians treat a shootout defeat as a draw, the silverware went to Lisbon, not Madrid. That slip in a knockout final is the kind of wrinkle that Argentina will look to exploit. La Roja have not lost in 90 or 120 minutes, but they have tasted defeat in a trophy decider. That is a mental scar, however small, and Lionel Scaloni's Argentina are precisely the sort of side to pick at it.Argentina, for their part, arrive with a streak of their own. Fourteen matches without defeat. They are not the razzle dazzle carnival team of previous generations, but something far more dangerous: a dogged, tactically flexible unit that knows how to win ugly. They can pin you back with possession or sit in a low block and hit you on the break. They have the mentality of champions, a squad that has bottled up the pain of defeat and turned it into cold, clinical finishing. When you look at this final, you see a collision of two different kinds of invincibility. Spain have the numbers, the flow, the beautiful patterns. Argentina have the resilience, the nous, and the leader who can drag them through the mud.The ultimate question, then, is whether Spain can replicate Italy's true immortality. For context, Italy's run between October 2018 and September 2021 included lifting the European Championship. They were genuinely unbeaten, no asterisks, no penalty shootout heartbreak. Spain have matched the quantity but not the quality of that achievement. To truly etch their names alongside Mancini's Azzurri, they need to get over the line here. If they do, they become the untouchable force the numbers suggest. If they slip, the narrative shifts. An Argentine win would not just break a record, it would expose a crack in the edifice. Squeaky bum time, indeed.This is not just a final. It is a verdict on the very definition of an unbeaten run. Does it count if you lost the cup on spot kicks For Spain, Sunday is the chance to silence that question for good. For Argentina, it is a chance to prove that the only streak that matters is the one that ends with your hands on the trophy.
