Euro 2008 is over and Spain are the new European champions. One hour before midnight Iker Casillas lifted the trophy and the celebrations begun all over Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna and in every major city in Spain.La furia roja is finally on the top of Europe 44 years after the glorious generation that dominated the Old continent in 1964.
The lads of Aragones showed off great maturity in the matches, despite their youth and inexperience, and by many football reviewers they deserved the victory.
The Spanish national team was in the group D alongside with Greece (former European champion), Russia and Sweden. The group phase was passed easily with 3 wins of the three matches. Italy was the team who met Spain in the quarter-finals. The game was not one of the best of the tournament coz Spain faced very dangerous opponent who knew how to play on a result, despite the awful football for watching. The game was decided after penalty shoot-out and Casillas was the man of the match saving 2 of the 4 penalties. Once again the Madridista showed to the world that he is the No1 goalkeeper. In the semi-finals we all saw one of the best matches of this Euro when Spain faced Russia. Led by the excellent coach Hiddink, Russia showed great display during the group stage and especially in the quarter-final with Netherlands, but obviously Spain was way too big bite for them. The match ends 3-0 for Spain and the whole squad was about to prepare for the great final. Big loss for the final match for Spain was the injury of David Villa – the top scorer of the Euro 2008.
The last barrier on the way to the glory was Germany – team who didn’t play such a good football during this competition but their experience showed off as crucial when they beat the opponents Portugal and Turkey which showed much better display then Germany in the matches. First 15 minutes of the game haven’t promised anything good for Spain, but then they turned over the match and took the ball possession also creating some chances. In the 32” Fernando Torres picked up a through ball from Xavi and flipped over Lehman and that was the end for the Germans. They had more than one hour for playing but I think that even if they played whole night they wouldn’t score. In the rest of the match the attendance saw only chances for Spain but they didn’t score. It was 1-0 for Spain in the end!
So, if you make a little overview of the Euro 2008 I think that you will agree with me that Spain deserved this trophy more than any other team.
Congratulations!
