Spain hold the longest unbeaten run in international football. Luis de la Fuente’s side went 38 matches without defeat between 26 March 2024 and 19 July 2026, a stretch of 29 wins and nine draws that took in a European Championship and a World Cup, and it ended Italy’s five-year hold on the record. Guinness World Records lists the mark at 38, achieved between those two dates.
The run is not over. Spain have not lost since, so the number is a floor rather than a final figure. Figures on this page are current to 27 August 2026.
Spain’s 38: the run that took the record
Spain’s last defeat came on 22 March 2024, when Colombia beat them 1-0 in a friendly in London. Everything since has been unbeaten. The run began four days later and carried them through the whole of Euro 2024, which they won, and then through the whole of the 2026 World Cup, which they also won.
They drew level with Italy’s 37 by beating France in the World Cup semi-final, and passed it in the final itself. Spain beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time at MetLife Stadium on 19 July 2026, Ferran Torres finishing in the 106th minute against ten men after Enzo Fernandez was sent off in stoppage time at the end of normal time. It was Spain’s second world title and their first since 2010, and it made them the holders of the European and world championships at the same time.
There is a neat symmetry to the two ends of the record. The man who ended Italy’s 37-match run in October 2021 was Ferran Torres, with a brace in Milan. The man who scored the goal that carried Spain past Italy’s number, in the World Cup final nearly five years later, was Ferran Torres again.
The rest of the 2026 prizes went the same way: Rodri took the Golden Ball and Unai Simon the Golden Glove, with Kylian Mbappe the Golden Boot winner.
Longest unbeaten run in international football
| Team | Unbeaten run | Years |
| Spain | 38 | 2024-2026 |
| Italy | 37 | 2018-2021 |
| Argentina | 36 | 2019-2022 |
| Brazil | 35 | 1993-1996 |
| Spain | 35 | 2007-2009 |
| Italy | 30 | 1935-1939 |
These are all-matches runs, counting friendlies alongside competitive fixtures, which is how the record has always been kept for Italy’s 37 and is how Spain’s 38 was reported. The club equivalent is a different question entirely, and we keep it on our longest unbeaten runs by football clubs page.
Italy’s 37, and how it ended
Italy’s record run finished against Spain. Manchester City’s Ferran Torres scored a brace as La Roja won the Nations League semi-final 2-1 in Milan on 6 October 2021, taking partial revenge for their Euro 2020 semi-final penalty shootout defeat by the eventual champions.
37 – Italy have ended an unbeaten streak of 37 consecutive games: the longest such run ever for a major National team in general. Braking.#ItalySpain
— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) October 6, 2021
Italy had gone past the previous mark of 35, shared by Brazil (1993-1996) and Spain (2007-2009), with a draw against Switzerland in September 2021. Brazil’s run stretched from December 1993 to January 1996, the years either side of their fourth World Cup.
The last time Roberto Mancini‘s Italy had lost before the run began was 10 September 2018, when Andre Silva‘s 48th-minute strike gave Portugal a 1-0 win in the UEFA Nations League group stage.
Italy’s other run: Pozzo’s side in the 1930s
Italy’s 2-1 win over Austria in the Euro 2020 round of 16 took the team past their own previous national record, set by Vittorio Pozzo‘s side of the 1930s.
Italy have broken their unbeaten record in their NT HISTORY.
31 wins, beating the 30 under Vittorio Pozzo in 1939.
via Opta
— Italian Football TV (@IFTVofficial) June 26, 2021
Under Pozzo, Italy went unbeaten between October 1935 and July 1939. In that time they won a second successive World Cup and the gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Argentina’s 36 and the Saudi Arabia shock
Argentina’s own unbeaten run came to an end against Saudi Arabia in their first match of the 2022 World Cup. The Asian side came from a goal behind to beat Lionel Scaloni’s team 2-1 at the Lusail Stadium on 22 November 2022, one of the great World Cup upsets.
A 5-0 friendly win over the UAE days earlier had taken Argentina to 36 matches unbeaten, one short of Italy’s record at the time. Their previous national best of 31 had been set between 1991 and 1993. Argentina recovered to win that World Cup anyway, which is worth remembering whenever a long run ends: the streak and the trophy are not the same thing.
Italy’s national record for the longest run without conceding
On the same day the Italian side was troubled by Austria at Euro 2020, they broke another of their own records. After the round of 16 clash ended 0-0 in normal time, Italy had completed 1,168 minutes without conceding a goal, a new national record.
It lasted 25 more minutes. Sasa Kalajdzic headed past Gianluigi Donnarumma in extra time to end it. Before that, the Netherlands had been the last team to score against Italy, in a Nations League match on 14 October 2020. The previous Italian mark was set under Ferruccio Valcareggi, when goalkeeper Dino Zoff went 1,143 minutes without conceding.
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