Star player:
Fernando Torres

Previous appearances:
1934 (quarter-finals), 1950 (fourth place), 1962 (first round), 1966 (first round), 1990 (second round), 1994 (quarter-finals), 1998 (first round), 2002 (quarter-finals), 2006 (second round).

How they qualified 
Bosnia Herzegovina (h)   1-0
Armenia (h)                  4-0
Estonia (a)                   3-0
Belgium (a)                   2-1
Turkey (h)                    1-0
Turkey (a)                    2-1
Belgium (h)                   5-0
Estonia (h)                    3-0
Armenia (a)                   2-1
Bosnia Herzegovina (a)    5-2

Chances:
Chronic World Cup underachievers in the past, Spain have never been better placed to become world champions having broken their habit of freezing at major finals in emphatic fashion by winning Euro 2008. There is quality all over the pitch and they pose the biggest threat to Brazil.

Strange but true
Abdres Iniesta suffers a pigmentation problem which is why he is so pale compared to his team mates. A running joke on a Spannish TV program refers to him as “the glow worm”.