Technical Director Tony Larkin has seen his squad beaten by the Spaniards in three successive European Championship finals, most recently losing 4-2 in Manchester two years ago.

“We are the top two teams, we’ll be seeded when the draw is made, and there is a big rivalry,” said team founder Larkin, who is based at the Royal National College for the Blind, in Hereford.

“We know we can beat Spain because we did it on penalties at a recent warm-up tournament in Portugal. Over the years we’ve played them 12 times, won four, lost six, and drawn two, but they’ve tended to win the major games."

There are eight blind players in the 10-strong squad, the team comprising four blind outfield players and a sighted goalkeeper.

The 'keeper, along with the coach and a guide behind the opposition goal, is able to offer verbal guidance. The ball contains ball bearings, the sound of which also helps the players.

Larkin, 49, started his own playing career at Everton, and played around 300 games at left-back for Wrexham, Shrewsbury, Carlisle and Hereford. He then spent four years coaching in the USA.

“The players have good orientation and spatial awareness, but there are obviously differences in coaching blind players as opposed to fully sighted ones,” said Larkin, whose team will be competing against Greece, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia and Cyprus.

“You would encourage a sighted player to have a good back-lift to get power in a shot, but too much back-lift will cause a blind player to lose balance, so the emphasis is on short, sharp jabs.

“The other thing is that you can’t coach them to knock the ball too far away from their feet when running with the ball. There are things we have to adapt to, but many blind players have tremendous skills.”

Darren Harris is the team captain and has also represented Great Britain in both judo and athletics. The Wolverhampton born international works as a sports massage therapist in Cardiff and has been a mainstay of the blind squad for a decade.

“We play every day in tournaments, so we don’t get the same kind of recovery time as able-bodied teams, and I think fitness has been a factor in the past,” he said.

“We have played well in the early group stages and then struggled with knocks. But I think a lot of that is down to basic fitness, and it’s something we’ve worked hard on.”

TheFA.com will be following the team in Spain next week as they hope to end the year in style.