Hamburg was looking its finest for the draw for the European Championships to be held in Germany in 2024. The avant-garde building of the Elbe Philharmonic was where all qualified teams all assembled with excitement to find out their opponents.
The Spanish delegation in Hamburg was made up of the president of the RFEF Management Committee, Pedro Rocha, the national coach, Luis de la Fuente, and the national team manager, Albert Luque. They were joined at the ceremony by David Silva, a double European Championship winner with Spain in 2008 and 2012, who was designated by UEFA as the national team's historic representative for the draw.
Spain went into the draw as top seeds but still needed to find out which group they would be drawn in and who their first three opponents would be at the 17th UEFA European Championships.
The draw has produced a potentially tricky group for Spain. The national team will kick off their time in Germany against Croatia on Saturday 15 June in Berlin. The Croatians are typically extremely competitive on the international stage and there have been numerous previous clashes against them in recent times, not to forget that it was against Croatia that Spain won the UEFA Nations League final last June.
The second match at the European Championship will be against the ever dangerous Italy. They are the reigning European champions and a very familiar opponent. The match will take place on Thursday 20 June in Gelsenkirchen.
To finish off the group stage, it's time for Albania, on Monday 24 June, in Düsseldorf, the last match of a very tough group stage that will force the national team to dig deep to reach the round of 16.
Group A: Germany, Scotland, Hungary and Switzerland.
Group B: SPAIN, Croatia, Italy and Albania.
Group C: Slovenia, Denmark, Serbia and England.
Group D: Winner of playoff A, Netherlands. Austria and France.
Group E: Belgium, Slovakia, Romania and winner of playoff B.
Group F: Turkey, Winner of playoff C, Portugal and Czech Republic.
The group stage starts on 14 June and ends on 26 June. The Round of 16 will be played from Saturday 29 to Tuesday 2 July. The quarter-finals are on Friday 5 July and Saturday 6 July. The semi-finals are on 9 and 10 July. And the Grand Final will be on Sunday 14 July in Berlin.