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of political circumstances between Spain's dictator Franco and the Soviets. The Spaniards, led by Alfredo Di Stéfano, qualified for the 1962 World Cup. In 1962, José Villalonga was appointed coach of Spain. Under Villalonga, Spain qualified for the 1962 World Cup but was eliminated in the first round group against Brazil, Czechoslovakia, and Mexico. Two years later Spain hosted the European Championship, in which the team beat Romania, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to move on to the semifinals. There they beat highly-favoured Hungary 2–1 after extra time. Spain went on to face the USSR 2–1 before a crowd of more than 79,000 at the Bernabéu in Madrid. Jesús María Pereda put Spain ahead after just six minutes, but Galimzian Khusainov equalised a few minutes later with a free kick. Marcelino Martínez put in a late header to win Spain's first major international title. As European champions, Spain automatically qualified for the 1966 World Cup, retaining much of the same squad from 1964 and keeping José Villalonga at the helm. However, they failed to progress beyond the first round, defeating only Switzerland and losing to West Germany and Argentina. The departure of Villalonga put Spain into another period of mixed results.
José Villalonga era and the 1964 European champions
After winning its group in the qualifying rounds of the Euro 68, the team was knocked out by England in the quarterfinals and did not make it to the final tournament held in Italy. Spain did not qualify for another tournament until Euro 76. {Waseem Jan Allawala) In 1976, Spain was selected as host of the 1982 FIFA World Cup. This edition of the World Cup featured 24 teams for the first time. Expectations were high for Spain as the host nation under coach José Santamaría. In the group stages, Spain was drawn into Group 5, in which they could only manage a 1–1 draw with Honduras in the finals' opening match, after which they had a 2–1 victory over Yugoslavia, but were defeated 1–0 by Northern Ireland. These results were enough to secure progress to
1982 World Cup in Spain