Werner Pichler escreveu:
> On Wednesday, November 22, 2023 at 6:53:18 AM UTC+1, Lléo wrote:
> > Conmebol qualifiers are now over one-third of the way to North America 2026.
> > This round saw the fall of The Last of the Mohicans, an unbeaten run spread
> > over seven decades broken at the derby of the continental heavyweights, in
> > the same stadium where it began.
>
> So the last two remaining streaks for WC qualifiers are Spain unbeaten at
> home, and Germany still unbeaten away.

Indeed. I had forgotten about those, so Brasil's streak was not exactly "The
Last of the Mohicans". I've had a look at them nonetheless, out of curiosity,
just to compare the numbers. As of now, if I haven't made any mistake, Spain's
run stands at 58 games, 48 wins, 10 draws, 162 goals scored, 27 conceded.

That means they can't reach Brasil's 64-game run in this cycle yet, since
they host at most what, 3 to 6 home games on the road to WC 2026? However,
beating Italy's 59 home games unbeaten run (48 wins, 11 draws, 147-29 goals
scored-conceded), which was stopped by North Macedonia in the last cycle, is
already within their reach. And, anyway, Spain's run seems to be the longest
"living" one, so to say.

Here is the list of games, and later a geographic breakdown:

----------------1954----------------
Spain 4-1 Turkey (Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid)
----------------1958----------------
Spain 2-2 Switzerland (??, Madrid)
Spain 4-1 Scotland (??, Madrid)
----------------1962----------------
Spain 1-1 Wales (??, Madrid)
Spain 3-2 Morocco (Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid)
----------------1966----------------
Spain 4-1 Ireland (Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla)
----------------1970----------------
Spain 1-1 Belgium (Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid)
Spain 2-1 Yugoslavia (Camp Nou, Barcelona)
Spain 6-0 Finland (La Línea, Cadiz)
----------------1974----------------
Spain 2-2 Yugoslavia (??, Las Palmas)
Spain 3-1 Greece (??, Malaga)
----------------1978----------------
Spain 1-0 Yugoslavia (Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla)
Spain 2-0 Romania (Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid)
----------------1986----------------
Spain 3-0 Wales (Benito Villamarín, Sevilla)
Spain 1-0 Scotland (Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla)
Spain 2-1 Iceland (Benito Villamarín, Sevilla)
----------------1990----------------
Spain 2-0 Ireland (Benito Villamarín, Sevilla)
Spain 4-0 Northern Ireland (Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla)
Spain 4-0 Malta (Benito Villamarín, Sevilla)
Spain 4-0 Hungary (Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla)
----------------1994----------------
Spain 3-0 Albania (Benito Villamarín, Sevilla)
Spain 0-0 Ireland (Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla)
Spain 5-0 Lithuania (Benito Villamarín, Sevilla)
Spain 3-1 Northern Ireland (Benito Villamarín, Sevilla)
Spain 1-0 Denmark (Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla)
----------------1998----------------
Spain 4-1 Slovakia (Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez, Santa Cruz de Tenerife)
Spain 2-0 Yugoslavia (Mestalla, Valencia)
Spain 4-0 Malta (José Rico Pérez, Alicante)
Spain 1-0 Czech Republic (Nuevo Jose Zorrilla, Valladolid)
Spain 3-1 Faroe Islands (El Molinón, Gijón)
----------------2002----------------
Spain 2-0 Israel (Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid)
Spain 5-0 Liechtenstein (José Rico Pérez, Alicante)
Spain 4-1 Bosnia & Herzegovina (Nuevo Carlos Tartiere, Oviedo)
Spain 4-0 Austria (Mestalla, Valencia)
----------------2006----------------
Spain 2-0 Belgium (El Sardinero, Santander)
Spain 5-0 San Marino (Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos, Almería)
Spain 1-0 Lithuania (Mestalla, Valencia)
Spain 1-1 Bosnia & Herzegovina (Mestalla, Valencia)
Spain 1-1 Serbia & Montenegro (Vicente Calderón, Madrid)
Spain 5-1 Slovakia (Vicente Calderón, Madrid)
----------------2010----------------
Spain 1-0 Bosnia & Herzegovina (Nueva Condomina, Murcia)
Spain 4-0 Armenia (Carlos Belmonte, Albacete)
Spain 1-0 Turkey (Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid)
Spain 5-0 Belgium (Riazor, A Coruña)
Spain 3-0 Estonia (Romano, Mérida)
----------------2014----------------
Spain 1-1 France (Vicente Calderón, Madrid)
Spain 1-1 Finland (El Molinón, Gijón)
Spain 2-1 Belarus (Iberostar, Palma de Mallorca)
Spain 2-0 Georgia (Carlos Belmonte, Albacete)
----------------2018----------------
Spain 8-0 Liechtenstein (Reino de León, León)
Spain 4-0 Macedonia (Nuevo Los Cármenes, Granada)
Spain 4-1 Israel (El Molinón, Gijón)
Spain 3-0 Italy (Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid)
Spain 3-0 Albania (José Rico Pérez, Alicante)
----------------2022----------------
Spain 1-1 Greece (Nuevo Los Cármenes, Granada)
Spain 3-1 Kosovo (La Cartuja, Sevilla)
Spain 4-0 Georgia (Nuevo Vivero, Badajoz)
Spain 1-0 Sweden (La Cartuja, Sevilla)

They spread these 58 games in 22 cities throughout 13 autonomous communities.
Here's a breakdown by city:

16 Sevilla
13 Madrid
4 Valencia
3 Gijón, Alicante
2 Albacete, Granada
1 A Coruña, Almería, Badajóz, Barcelona, Cádiz, Las Palmas, León, Málaga,
Mérida, Murcia, Oviedo, Palma de Mallorca, Santander, Santa Cruz de Tenerife,
Valladolid

And a breakdown by autonomous community:

21 Andalusia
13 Community of Madrid
7 Valencian Community
4 Asturias
2 Canary Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Castille and León, Extremadura
1 Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Catalunya, Galicia, Murcia

That is pretty much spread around, it seems. But this came from the 1998 cycle
onwards. Until 1994, over half WCQ's Spain hosted thus far had been in Sevilla.

Also interesting to note that Spain only ever played one World Cup Qualifier in
Barcelona (a 2-1 win over Yugoslavia in 1969), and never in the Basque Country.
I imagine, though, that this might look different if we look also at ECQ's?
But anyway, in those, neither Spain's nor Germany's runs stands.

Now, just for completeness's sake let's have a look at Germany's run. In a sense
I find it even more impressive than Brasil's or Spain's, since those are away
games. Adding all up, it's been 50 games, 41 wins, 9 draws, 141 goals scored
and 37 conceded, against 29 teams across Europe. Here's the full list:

----------------1954----------------
Norway 1-1 West Germany
Saar 1-3 West Germany
----------------1962----------------
Northern Ireland 3-4 West Germany
Greece 0-3 West Germany
----------------1966----------------
Sweden 1-2 West Germany
Cyprus 0-6 West Germany
----------------1970----------------
Austria 0-2 West Germany
Cyprus 0-1 West Germany
Scotland 1-1 West Germany
----------------1982----------------
Bulgaria 1-3 West Germany
Albania 0-2 West Germany
Finland 0-4 West Germany
Austria 1-3 West Germany
----------------1986----------------
Malta 2-3 West Germany
Portugal 1-2 West Germany
Czechoslovakia 1-5 West Germany
Sweden 2-2 West Germany
----------------1990----------------
Finland 0-4 West Germany
Netherlands 1-1 West Germany
Wales 0-0 West Germany
----------------1998----------------
Armenia 1-5 Germany
Portugal 0-0 Germany
Albania 2-3 Germany
Ukraine 0-0 Germany
Northern Ireland 1-3 Germany
----------------2002----------------
England 0-1 Germany
Greece 2-4 Germany
Finland 2-2 Germany
Albania 0-2 Germany
Ukraine 1-1 Germany
----------------2010----------------
Liechtenstein 0-6 Germany
Finland 3-3 Germany
Wales 0-2 Germany
Azerbaijan 0-2 Germany
Russia 0-1 Germany
----------------2014----------------
Austria 1-2 Germany
Ireland 1-6 Germany
Kazakhstan 0-3 Germany
Faroe Islands 0-3 Germany
Sweden 3-5 Germany
----------------2018----------------
Norway 0-3 Germany
San Marino 0-8 Germany
Azerbaijan 1-4 Germany
Czech Republic 1-2 Germany
Northern Ireland 1-3 Germany
----------------2022----------------
Romania 0-1 Germany
Liechtenstein 0-2 Germany
Iceland 0-4 Germany
North Macedonia 0-4 Germany
Armenia 1-4 Germany

Germany's away win over Russia in the 2010 cycle is an interesting one, as
it broke another decades-long unbeaten home run. The old Soviet Union, which
played WC cycles from 1958 to 1990, also never lost a home match - and, in
their case, that invincibility was true for ECQ matches as well (EC cycles
from 1960 to 1992).

After the USSR dissolution, FIFA designated Russia as its successor. Though
Russia's run in ECQ's didn't last too long after that (lost to France at
home in EC 2000 qualifiers, and a handful more matches further down the line),
they managed to keep it alive in the WCQ for a while longer. This defeat to
Germany was the first and, as far as I could find, only Russian loss at home
in a WCQ match. Though, for bookkeeping purposes, technically one should probably
count the walk-over loss to Poland in the playoffs for WC 2022 too, I guess?

Just for kicks, here is the list of qualifying games played by the USSR.
To compare like with like, here are the totals:

WCQ's: 26 games, 24 wins, 2 draws, 64 goals scored, 6 conceded
ECQ's: 27 games, 21 wins, 6 draws, 71 goals scored, 17 conceded
Aggregate: 53 games, 45 wins, 8 draws, 135 goals scored, 23 conceded

-------------WC-1958----------------
Soviet Union 3-0 Poland (Lenin Central Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 2-1 Finland (Dynamo Stadium, Moscow)
-------------EC-1960----------------
Soviet Union 3-1 Hungary (Lenin Central Stadium, Moscow)
-------------WC-1962----------------
Soviet Union 1-0 Turkey (??, Moscow)
Soviet Union 5-2 Norway (??, Moscow)
-------------WC-1966----------------
Soviet Union 3-1 Greece (??, Moscow)
Soviet Union 2-1 Wales (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 6-0 Denmark (??, Moscow)
-------------EC-1968----------------
Soviet Union 4-3 Austria (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 4-0 Greece (Central Dynamo Stadium, Tblisi)
Soviet Union 2-0 Finland (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 3-0 Hungary (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
-------------WC-1970----------------
Soviet Union 3-0 Turkey (Central Stadium, Kiev)
Soviet Union 2-0 Northern Ireland (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
-------------EC-1972----------------
Soviet Union 2-1 Spain (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 6-1 Cyprus (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 1-0 Northern Ireland (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 3-0 Yugoslavia (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
-------------WC-1974----------------
Soviet Union 1-0 Ireland (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 2-0 France (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 0-0 Chile (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
-------------EC-1976----------------
Soviet Union 3-0 Turkey (Central Stadium, Kiev)
Soviet Union 2-1 Ireland (Central Stadium, Kiev)
Soviet Union 4-1 Switzerland (Central Stadium, Kiev)
Soviet Union 2-2 Czechoslovakia (Central Stadium, Kiev)
-------------WC-1978----------------
Soviet Union 2-0 Greece (??, Moscow)
Soviet Union 2-0 Hungary (??, Tblisi)
-------------EC-1980----------------
Soviet Union 2-0 Greece (Hrazdan, Yerevan)
Soviet Union 2-2 Hungary (Central Dynamo Stadium, Tblisi)
Soviet Union 2-2 Finland (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
-------------WC-1982----------------
Soviet Union 5-0 Iceland (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 4-0 Turkey (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 2-0 Czechoslovakia (Central Dynamo Stadium, Tblisi)
Soviet Union 3-0 Wales (Central Dynamo Stadium, Tblisi)
-------------EC-1984----------------
Soviet Union 2-0 Finland (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 5-0 Portugal (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 2-0 Poland (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
-------------WC-1986----------------
Soviet Union 4-0 Switzerland (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 1-0 Denmark (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 2-0 Ireland (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 1-0 Norway (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
-------------EC-1988----------------
Soviet Union 4-0 Norway (Lokomotiv Stadium, Simferopol)
Soviet Union 2-0 East Germany (Republican Stadium, Kiev)
Soviet Union 1-1 France (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 2-0 Iceland (Lokomotiv Stadium, Simferopol)
-------------WC-1990----------------
Soviet Union 2-0 Austria (Republican Stadium, Kiev)
Soviet Union 3-0 East Germany (Republican Stadium, Kiev)
Soviet Union 1-1 Iceland (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 2-0 Turkey (Lokomotiv Stadium, Simferopol)
-------------EC-1992----------------
Soviet Union 2-0 Norway (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 4-0 Cyprus (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 2-2 Hungary (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)
Soviet Union 0-0 Italy (Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow)

Breakdown by city:

36 Moscow
8 Kiev
5 Tblisi
3 Simferopol
1 Yerevan

And by USSR member state:

36 Russia
11 Ukraine
5 Georgia
1 Armenia

And here's the list for Russia (WC Cycles), until the loss that broke down
the run. At that moment, it stood at 24 games, 18 wins, 6 draws, 55 goals
scored and 7 conceded.

----------------1994----------------
Russia 1-0 Iceland
Russia 2-0 Luxembourg
Russia 3-0 Hungary
Russia 1-1 Greece
----------------1998----------------
Russia 4-0 Cyprus
Russia 3-0 Luxembourg
Russia 2-0 Israel
Russia 4-2 Bulgaria
Russia 1-1 Italy
----------------2002----------------
Russia 3-0 Luxembourg
Russia 1-1 Slovenia
Russia 1-0 Faroe Islands
Russia 1-1 Yugoslavia
Russia 4-0 Switzerland
----------------2006----------------
Russia 1-1 Slovakia
Russia 4-0 Estonia
Russia 2-0 Latvia
Russia 2-0 Liechtenstein
Russia 0-0 Portugal
Russia 5-1 Luxembourg
----------------2010----------------
Russia 2-1 Wales
Russia 3-0 Finland
Russia 2-0 Azerbaijan
Russia 3-0 Liechtenstein
Russia 0-1 Germany

So, the USSR/Russian WCQ's home run adds up to 50 games, 42 wins, 8 draws,
119 goals scored and 14 conceded, until they met the away-unbeatable Germans
at Luzhniki, on that fateful October 10th, 2009. That means that Spain only
caught up with them in the WC 2018 cycle, and also that Germany themselves
just matched its length in their away run in the last round of the WC 2022
cycle.

Anyway, it seems like Brasil's 64-game unbeaten home run will remain as the
longest of its kind for at least another WC cycle. Unless, of course, there's
something else hidden in the vast world of CAF/AFC/CONCACAF/OFC that we're not
aware of. I think I'll look it up sometime, not right now though, because this
post is already long enough as it is :-)

Best regards,

Lléo