Spain Are World Champions: The Euro-and-World-Cup Double, One Goal Conceded, and My Rating on a Winner That Priced at Decimal 1.67

I have watched a lot of World Cup finals, and I cannot remember rating a champion this highly. Spain beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time at MetLife Stadium on Sunday — a Ferran Torres finish 106 minutes in — to win their second World Cup and their first since 2010. That single line undersells what they did. They now hold the European Championship and the World Cup at the same time, and with the women’s crown from 2023 already on the shelf, they became the first nation in football history to hold the men’s and women’s World Cups simultaneously. They conceded one goal in eight matches. As a Kiwi columnist who spent this tournament telling punters where the value sat, my honest verdict is that the market got the winner right at decimal 1.67 — and still undervalued how good this side actually was.

The Result: 0-0 for 120 Minutes Until Two Substitutes Decided It

Let me start with what actually happened, because the scoreline hides a strange final. It was 0-0 through 90 minutes and deep into extra time. The winner arrived about 39 seconds into the second period of extra time, and it came off the bench. Pedro Porro delivered to the back post, substitute Nico Williams won the header past Molina, and substitute Ferran Torres — on since the 62nd minute for Oyarzabal — finished first-time with his left foot past Emiliano Martínez. Two substitutes combined for a World Cup-winning goal. It was Ferran’s first goal of the tournament, and he chose the right night for it.

Argentina finished with ten men. Enzo Fernández was sent off on 90+3 for a second yellow — a reckless foul that sent Pau Cubarsí airborne — leaving Argentina a man down for the closing minutes and all of extra time. Emiliano Martínez made 11 saves, the most ever recorded in a World Cup final, and reportedly played through a broken finger. For a good while it looked like his heroics might drag Argentina to penalties. They did not.

The Defence: One Goal in Eight Games Is the Number That Defines Them

Here is the statistic I keep coming back to, and the one I think history will remember. Spain conceded a single goal across eight matches — the fewest ever by a World Cup winner. And they did it in the 48-team format, which means they played more games than any previous champion in history. Seven clean sheets in one edition. In the final itself, Argentina — with Messi, with Julián Álvarez, with all that attacking talent — managed no shot on target across 120 minutes.

Their unbeaten run stretched to 38 matches, a new outright international record that passed Italy’s 37. Unai Simón kept seven clean sheets in the edition and took the Golden Glove. When I rate a champion, I look for a spine you can trust under the worst pressure a knockout can apply, and Spain’s back line and goalkeeper never blinked. Defensive rating: 10/10. I cannot mark it lower — the record is the record.

The Squad: de la Fuente’s Teenage-Powered Barcelona Core

The story underneath the title is a youth project that paid off two or three years early. Luis de la Fuente built around a Barcelona-heavy generational core — Lamine Yamal at 19, Pau Cubarsí at 19 and named Best Young Player of the tournament — completing a Euro-and-World-Cup double at teenage ages. Rodri anchored it and won the Golden Ball roughly 20 months after rupturing his ACL. That is not a team peaking and fading; that is a team whose best years are ahead.

For any Kiwi punter thinking about the 2030 outright board the moment it opens, this matters. Champions who win old tend to drift in price fast. Spain won young. Squad-quality verdict: Spain 10/10, and the scary part is the age curve.

How the Outright Settled — And Whether the Favourite Was Value

Spain went into the final as the outright favourite. The closing price to lift the trophy was decimal 1.67 on FanDuel, 1.72 on Kalshi — a clear market leader, and the favourite delivered. But I want to be honest about what that means for anyone who backed it: 1.67 on a team that needed extra time to break down ten-man Argentina is not a value play, it is a correct price on a probable outcome.

The value on Spain was gone weeks earlier, back when they were a top-of-the-board name rather than the settled favourite. If you took Spain at their group-stage price and held, you did well. If you backed 1.67 on final day, you backed the right team at the wrong number. As I have written all tournament: there is no edge in a correct price.

For the full picture of how every outright market resolved — winner, Golden Boot, Golden Ball, Golden Glove — my World Cup 2026 odds and predictions verdict has the settled board. And if you followed Argentina’s run all tournament, the runners-up page has the other side of Sunday’s story.

My Verdict

Spain are the best World Cup winner I have rated. The double, the first-ever simultaneous men’s and women’s holders, one goal conceded in eight games across the biggest tournament ever staged — that is a champion that will be measured against the great sides for a generation. My overall rating is 10/10, and I do not hand those out.

For the punter, the lesson is the one this whole tournament kept teaching: the market found the winner early and priced it fairly by the end. The 1.67 was correct. The money was in backing this side before everyone else agreed. As always, TAB NZ remains the legal home for sports betting in New Zealand — the outright is settled now, but the 2030 board will open sooner than you think, and Spain will be near the top of it.

18+. Gamble responsibly. When the fun stops, stop. All odds quoted are closing decimal prices as the tournament settled; markets are now resolved.