Spain to return to Bilbao 53 years later, where they played their first home match

It was 9th October 1921 when Spain, after playing their first 5 official matches in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, played a friendly match against Belgium at the San Mamés, inaugurated 8 years before.

That match between the Olympic runners up, Spain, and the winners, Belgium, ended with José Ángel Berraondo's side winning 2-0 thanks to goals from Barcelona striker Paulino Alcántara.

Spain would then go on to play 3 friendly matches after that in Bilbao against Italy (0-0) in 1931, Portugal (5-1) in 1941 and Sweden (2-2) in 1953.

The first official match that Spain played in Bilbao was in 1963 against Northern Ireland in a Euro 1964 qualification match. José Villalonga's men won the trophy 1 year later against the Soviet Union with a legendary Marcelino goal.

That match ended in a 1-1 draw after Northern Ireland equalised right at the death with the Madrid player Amancio scoring Spain's goal.

The last match Spain played at the San Mamés was also official, in this case, a Euro 1968 qualification match that took place on 31st May 1967 and ended with Spain winning through goals from Grosso and Gento.

Matches played by Spain at the San Mamés:

- Date, match and score:

09-10-1921 Spain 2-Belgium 0 (Paulino Alcántara 2)
19-04-1931 Spain 0-Italy 0
16-03-1941 Spain 5-Portugal 1 (Herrerita, Campanal, Campos y Epifanio Fernández 'Epi' 2)
08-11-1953 Spain 2-Sweden 2 (Venancio y Molowny)
30-03-1963 Spain 1-Northern Ireland 1 (Amancio)
31-05-1967 Spain 2 Turkey 0 (Grosso y Gento).