The statement paved the way for a diplomatic thaw that was consolidated ahead of Spain’s match in Guadalajara. Prior to attending the game, Felipe made use of a layover in Mexico City to meet with Sheinbaum for a chat that was widely interpreted as putting an end to seven years of uneasy relations between the two countries.
Complicated legacies
After that win, La Roja triumphed over Austria — a dominion over which Charles V largely administered from Spain.
Then the team took on Portugal, a country whose identity is rooted in its resistance to Madrid’s expansionist ambitions — concerns that aren’t exaggerated. Since 1580, Spain has carried out six full-scale invasions of its western neighbor, and as recently as 1974, ailing Spanish dictator Francisco Franco drew up plans to deploy troops to Lisbon to snuff out the left-leaning Carnation Revolution.
Since the restoration of democracy in both countries, fears of annexation have vanished. They’ve been largely replaced by the friendly relations that were on display during the match — even if some Spanish satirists couldn’t help but gloat at their neighbor’s defeat by depicting King Phillip II, the Spanish monarch who oversaw the conquest of Portugal in 1580, ushering Cristiano Ronaldo off the pitch in a wheelchair.
In the quarterfinal, La Roja faced off against another rival that hasn’t forgotten its time under Spanish rule: Belgium.
Between 1556 and 1714, the country was known as the Spanish Netherlands, and when its inhabitants began to flirt with Protestantism, their ultra-Catholic rulers in Madrid responded with a violent crackdown that triggered the Eighty Years’ War. The conflict is a key part of Belgian identity, as is evident from the iconic memorial in Brussels commemorating Count Lamoral of Egmont and Count Philip of Horn, two noblemen who were executed by the Spaniards and are now hailed as national heroes.
Curiously, the nickname by which Spain’s national team is known — la furia española, or the Spanish fury — refers to the country’s brutal rule over the Spanish Netherlands. The moniker was coined to refer to a series of atrocities committed by poorly paid Spanish troops who mutinied and took their anger out on cities including Mechelen and Antwerp, where tens of thousands of civilians were raped and killed in 1572 and 1576.
After beating Belgium’s Red Devils, La Roja took on France — the only modern state that can boast of having ruled over continental Spain. Under the pretense of a joint Franco-Spanish invasion of Portugal, in 1808 French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte deployed his troops south of the Pyrenees and forced the ruling Bourbon royal family to abdicate. In their place, he installed his brother Joseph as king, and effectively turned Spain into a client state of the Napoleonic Empire for the next five years.
