In the round of 1/8 finals of the 2025 World Cup (U-20), Ukraine's youth team drew Spain — the winner of the 2024 European Championship (U-19) where the qualifiers for the world championship were held.

A year ago in Northern Ireland, the Spaniards defeated Italy in the semifinals (1:0), and then beat France in the final (2:0). Moreover, four players from the team (defender Jarrek Gashorovskyy, midfielder Gerard Hernandez, and forwards Iker Bravo and Dani Rodriguez) were included in the all-star team.

By the way, Spain's U-20 national team qualified for this age category World Cup for the first time since 2013, although they previously won the tournament (1999), reached the final (1985, 2003), and made it to the top four (1995). Overall, this is Spain's 16th U-20 World Cup.

At the current tournament, the team coached by 45-year-old Paco Gallardo started with a loss against their geographical neighbor — Morocco (0:2), then lost to Mexico (2:2) and in the final match had to play Brazil for maximum results, which they achieved thanks to Iker Bravo's goal (1:0).

The majority of players on Spain's roster are from local clubs. The only exception is Iker Bravo, who scored the decisive goal against Brazil and was included in the all-star team for Euro-2024 (U-19). He represents Italian Udinese.

The squad of Spaniards could have been much stronger, but Lamin Yamal, Pau Cubarsi (both from Barcelona), Din Gysen (Real Madrid), Jesus Rodriguez (Italian Como), Alex Jimenez (English Bournemouth) and a group of players valued in millions of euros by Transfermarkt stayed with their clubs.