Euro 2008 wallchart

It is a familiar tale, one of underachievement, of big-name players failing to gel, of a team who are less than the sum of their impressive parts. There are common themes - an hysterical media, the precedence of the country's leading clubs over its national team and, in addition, issues over whether it is a country at all - and then, of course, there is the habitual sense that this time, finally, they will get it right.

The Spain squad landed in Innsbruck, Austria, yesterday accompanied by loads of equipment and what England's players would recognise as the burden of expectation. Perhaps rather than expectation, it is the suspicion that, with players such as Iker Casillas, Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernández, Cesc Fàbregas, Fernando Torres and David Villa, the team should perform well, but that they probably will not. Sound familiar?

“There are lot of similarities with England,” Xabi Alonso, the Liverpool midfield player, said shortly before joining the Spain squad. “A lot of people believe we have a big chance and we have a lot of good individual players, but we have to perform together as a great team. We haven't always done that and that is why we haven't been successful in the big tournaments, so it is very similar to England, especially with the times we have lost on penalties.

“We should be closer to winning major tournaments. Spain won the Euros in 1964, but nothing since. We have played so many Euros, so many World Cups and every time people think this is the best team we are ever going to have. But in the last few years, we haven't even been close to winning tournaments. It has just been the quarter-finals or the last 16 - not even the semi-finals. Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Italy and in recent years France have all been consistent, but we have not.It is right to ask for more from the Spain team, given the players we have got.”

Some feel that this is because of a lack of national unity, with the squad consisting of Basques, such as Alonso, and Catalans, such as Puyol, Xavi and Fàbregas. Each year, during La Liga's winter break, Catalonia, Euskal Herria (the Basque country), Galicia and other regions contest friendly matches while Spanish flags are burnt on the terraces. Alonso, speaking at the launch of the Uefa Euro 2008 game, by EA Sports, said: “The situation is difficult because of the politics involved, but I prefer not to interfere. It is not difficult to come together and feel Spanish. I am proud to play for my country.”

On paper, Spain have arguably the best team and the best squad in the tournament, with Luis Aragonés, the coach, believing that they can afford to go without the talents of Raúl, the captain of Real Madrid. Alonso prefers not to discuss the Raúl issue - “It is the big debate in Spain” - but he certainly believes that, in Torres, his Liverpool team-mate, and Villa, of Valencia, they have two of the finest strikers in the tournament. “There is a lot of pressure on Fernando, but he is used to that,” Alonso said. “Every time he gets the ball at Liverpool, you feel that something could happen.”

Torres excelled in the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany, scoring three times before Spain were muscled out of the tournament by a more robust France team. That is the concern for Spain, that, for all their abundance of talented midfield players, they lack the substance that is needed to complement their style. “Maybe we do lack physique,” Alonso said, “but you have to make the best of your other qualities and concentrate on keeping the ball. With the players we have got, we will never just sit deep and play counter-attack and long balls.”

Those players include the Barcelona duo of Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, two players that Alonso describes as “amazing”, and you suspect that Alonso is only half-joking when he rues that so many of Spain's stars are ball-playing midfield players. He puts this down to the education of their youngsters in Spain, in contrast to that in England. “In Spain, the coaches first teach the kids to have good technique, whereas in England, the kids are told to learn about the physical aspects first: tackling, physical contact and not that much technique,” he said. “That is important, but so is technique.”

Spain's technique should help them to qualify from a group that contains Russia, Greece and Sweden, but will it get them much farther? “It is hard to say,” Alonso said. “Germany, Italy, France and even Portugal must be considered among the favourites.” And Spain? “We should do well,” he said. “It is clear we have underachieved, but we have faith in ourselves and will strive to reach the level we expect and want to reach.”