Georgia coach Willy Sagnol spoke for the managers of Turkey, Bulgaria, France, Germany, England and many others when he sighed with melancholy resignation and proclaimed: "Spain don't just play on another world, they play from a different universe."
The Frenchman, who won the UEFA Champions League with Bayern Munich and was a FIFA World Cup runner-up in 2006, had just seen Spain's "C" team threaten to put eight or nine goals past Georgia. Then, days later, La Roja smashed Bulgaria for another four to equal their all-time unbeaten run (29) in competitive matches.
"All-time" means that this squad has just matched the best undefeated run set by the Spain of Iker Casillas, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Xabi Alonso, Carles Puyol, Jordi Alba, Sergio Ramos, David Villa and Fernando Torres.
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And what's remarkable about Luis de la Fuente's current version of Spain is that they keep getting stripped of their elite talents ... but win and thrill anyway.
For example, in their last two World Cup qualifying matches Spain could have formed an XI from the following absent players:
Goalkeepers: Joan Garca, David de Gea
Defenders: Dani Carvajal, Dean Huijsen, Pau Torres, Nacho, Alejandro Balde, Iigo Martnez
Midfielders: Rodri, Fabin Ruiz, Marc Casad, Gavi, Fermn Lpez, Dani Olmo, Isco
Forwards: Lamine Yamal, lvaro Morata, Ayoze Prez, Joselu, Nico Williams
That, folks, is a team (prune it down to your favorite XI) which could beat any rival and win any tournament. But they were all, for one reason or another, absent from Spain's last two victories.
Throw in Ferran Torres, absent from the squad to face Bulgaria because he had a muscle strain, and that's 20 top-class footballers.
Be honest. How many other nations could lose that many leading footballers, some of whom are the best in the world in their position, and still thrive? Who could still romp past teams who want to defend for their lives and frustrate an understrength "big team"?
I think that the answer is: absolutely nobody.
No other international team could come up with so many solutions against a backdrop of talent-drain and still look -- at times -- unbeatable.
On Saturday, down on Spain's south-eastern coast, if it hadn't been for Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili putting on yet another masterclass against the European champions, the scoreline would have been 8-0 or 9-0.
That sparked this reply when I asked Sagnol -- as an ex world-class defender and long-time coach -- precisely why it is, in his view, that Spain are not only superior but appear to have limitless depth?
"Do you remember in the 1980s and 1990s -- Spain were good, they played well but they didn't win things?" he said. "What you see now is a product of 20-25 years good planning and practice by the Spanish FA. Take [Barcelona midfielder] Pedri as an example. He's what: about five kilograms? He looks as if he'd blow away if a strong wind got up.
"But he's one of the two or three best players in the world, best in his position, because he's so intelligent. Everything he does is for the team, driving them forward, offering for the ball, finding space, creating space.
"Spain produces so many players with football intelligence -- that's the special thing. Look at it today; they had six or seven top players missing and you wouldn't have noticed. They play exactly the same way and at the same level. And they keep producing these wonderful, football-intelligent players."
Spain's record in the past four years reads: UEFA European Championship semifinal (2021), Olympic silver medal (2021), UEFA Nations League runner-up (2021), World Cup round of 16 (2022), Nations League winners (2023), European Championship winners (2024), Olympic gold medal (2024), Nations League finalists (2025).
If this was a racehorse who'd placed third, second, second, ninth, first, first, first, and second, the stud-value would be off the charts and punters would be betting in their millions that this beautiful beast would be a cert to win the big one next summer.
To emphasize Sagnol's point, De la Fuente has used at least 63 players during that run. Many of those are footballers who other judges -- within the game, from the media and among fans -- thought couldn't cut it at the highest level but are now established international mainstays.
I managed to speak to Leeds United's organizing midfielder Ilia Gruev after Spain's 4-0 win over Bulgaria on Tuesday, and he was equally eloquent about the world's leading football nation.
"It's very, very tough against Spain because you don't even get in duels," he said. "You can't even make a tackle or get close because they move it [the ball] so quickly.
"They are very intelligent footballers. They play easy and smart which, for me, is the best anyone can play. Everybody knows what to do and it's very tough against them. You defend the whole time and then suddenly you win the ball and you're exhausted. You need to have the ball just to breathe a little bit.
"When I watch Spain play I enjoy it. It looks easy and people think that's the truth but it's not. It's very hard to do what they do."
But, like Sagnol correctly pointed out -- it's a process. Every year, Spain's FA starts with the 14-to-15-year-old age group, selects the best 55 players from that generation and then begins to mold them. Tactics, discipline, unity, responsibility.
When I spoke to the then youth coordinator at the Spanish FA, Gins Melendz he told me: "From the minute the lads arrive aged 15, right up until they are 20 or 21, we work with them in exactly the same way, with the same training drills, until they become automatic. The boys arrive with plenty of talent but we have to give them order. That's the two things which defines our football: order and talent."
Which partially explains why, when Spain's key footballers are absent, someone simply steps up and does the same thing.
"We are a family," Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino said Tuesday night after scoring twice against Bulgaria.
Instead of taking the dying minutes penalty, which might have given him a hat trick, Merino handed the ball to Mikel Oyarzabal who scored his 13th goal of the De la Fuente reign. The strike made it eight goals and five assists, plus a European Championship final-winning goal to his name, in his past 13 Spain matches. Is it a coincidence that he and De la Fuente have been working together since Oyarzabal was 19? And that the striker looks three times the player with Spain that he does at Real Sociedad? I think not.
Sagnol, of course, provided the last word on La Roja's supremacy: "Spain and Portugal are the two football models right now that every other country should be looking to learn from and copy."
He's right, but he said it with a sigh and a sad face. He and his Georgia team had just been through the Spain experience and come out battered and bruised -- but full of admiration -- on the other side.
