It’s 2010. The star-studded Spanish side made it to the World Cup finals, where they ultimately prevailed in a closely fought encounter with the Netherlands with Andres Iniesta’s extra-time winner.
Fast forward 16 years and a more obscure but equally effective Spain team has once again reached the pinnacle of football.
The names may not roll off the tongue as smoothly as they once did, but Luis de la Fuente’s current squad is aiming to match the achievements of the country’s golden generation and lift the trophy for a second time on Sunday, July 19.
Certain parallels are obvious.
Take continuity, for example: both teams came to their respective World Cups having won the European Championships two years earlier.
In the team that won in 2010, only three of the starting line-up did not attend Euro 2008. Only two players who started Tuesday’s semi-final against France were not included in Germany’s successful 2024 squad.
Interestingly, Spain’s 2026 squad of 26 players has a higher average age than the group selected by Vicente del Bosque in 2010 (27.8 compared to 26.7), but they are less experienced on the international stage (33 caps on average compared to 56).
Spain had not won a World Cup knockout match since lifting the trophy in South Africa before entering this race.
De la Fuente’s men’s vaunted 37-match unbeaten record is impressive – equaling Italy’s best record in the world – even if you discount Portugal’s penalty shoot-out defeat in last year’s Nations League final.
This Spanish team is the first team to keep six clean sheets in a single World Cup.
So how do the two XIs compare? BBC Sport is taking a closer look.