Suárez remembers Spain's sole success

Spain will go into tonight's final against Germany hoping to shake off their reputation as international football's great underachievers, but they have won one major competition – the 1964 UEFA European Championship. Nearly 80,000 fans were present at Madrid's Santiago Bernabéu to watch the hosts defeat the Soviet holders 2-1, and among the Spain team was midfielder Luís Suárez, who had already helped FC Internazionale Milano to European Champion Clubs' Cup triumphs in the previous two seasons. The Spain legend, 73, shared his memories of that success with euro2008.com before these finals.

euro2008.com: What special qualities did the 1964 Spain team have?

Luís Suárez: We were a good team but possibly not one of the best Spain has had. But we played well as a team. We were very compact and the players understood and complemented each other very well, partly because they came from only a few clubs. Then there was one player with a lot of international experience – me! I was the oldest player and I was already playing abroad. And I think that this plus the help we got – because we had a lot of help from the fans – was enough for us to win the European Championship. But I emphasise again that it was a team, rather than a selection of top players, and this teamwork was the crucial element in our triumph. Because other Spain teams that I played in were much better than the one we had in 1964 yet we never managed to achieve anything.

How important was home advantage?

It was important but didn't explain everything – as we saw in 1982, when it was not sufficient. Just the opposite, in fact, because it was a big disappointment. But in 1964 the team worked as a unit and the warmth of the fans was definitely a factor.

Could you say that the greatest barrier to Spain winning the title was Lev Yashin?

Yes, he was a great goalkeeper who seemed a bit awesome because, among other things, he wore an all-black strip which in other countries was never seen. I don't think any other goalkeeper dressed that way at the time: black from tip to toe; jersey, shorts, stockings etc. He was also very renowned at the time because hardly anything came out of Russian football at that stage. So a sort of myth was created around him. In fact the myth was probably greater than the man himself, even though he was a great goalkeeper.

What do you remember about the final?

My main memory is of the atmosphere because the Bernabéu was full. And at the time the capacity was much greater than it is now. They didn't put seating in until the [1982] World Cup. It was full. What's more, we had suffered a lot during the semi-final against Hungary so the fans were in the right frame of mind to get behind us right from the start. That gave us a great sense of security and helped us to stay calm. That special atmosphere on the pitch and in the stands is one of the things that I especially remember of that final, alongside the good performance of our team because in those days Russia had a very good team indeed.