Euro 2008 Team Review: Spain

Fernando Torres scored the winner in the final

How did they do? They won Euro 2008, playing a brand of silky, free-flowing football. This cannot always be said at tournaments but, emphatically, the winners were the best team throughout. Their superiority manifested itself throughout the pitch – from the clinical finishing of David Villa and Fernando Torres up front, to the formidable defensive duo of Iker Casillas and Carlos Puyol, via a majestic midfield. Their midfield combined the silky panache of Andreas Iniesta, Xavi – the official player of the tournament – and young creative livewire Cesc Fabregas with the relentlessly efficient Marcos Senna.

High How can one look any further than the utterly deserved victory over Germany, which ended 44 barren and trophyless years? Yet, ironically and as so often happens for tournament winners, the worst display was the most significant. The penalty victory over Italy in the quarter-final was what ended the ‘pain in Spain’. Having beaten Italy – in the quarter-finals; on penalties; and on June 22nd, when they had thrice lost shoot-outs – there was nothing more to fear. And, whatever happened thereafter, Spain’s tournament would be regarded as a triumph amongst their supporters.

Low Moments prior to the penalty shoot-out, when Spain feared history would repeat itself. Thereafter, their campaign was leant a sense of inevitability and even the misfortune of having top scorer David Villa injured for the final could not derail them.

Coach Luis Aragones: the 69-year-old has attacted his fair share of criticism, not least when calling Thierry Henry a “black shit” in his ill-fated attempts to motivate Jose Reyes. However, he did a sterling job this tournament, earning copious praise from his players when it was announced he was joining Fernerbache. His use of substitutions, particularly his sagacious use of Cesc Fabregas as an impact player from the bench, was impressive indeed, even if repeatedly substituting Fernando Torres mystified many. The ex-Real Madrid coach Vicente del Bosque is as good a man as any to take up the reins.

Key player Whilst Villa scored four times, Casillas excelled, including in the penalty shoot-out, and the Xavi’s creative panache saw him recognised as the official player of the tournament, Marcos Senna’s distribution, tackling, positional sense and indefatigability as a biting central midfielder made him perhaps Spain’s most crucial player of all.

What next? With many players of exquisite gifts who should not yet at their peak, led by Fabregas, Villa, Torres and Sergio Ramos, Spain now have the opportunity to dominate international football for several tournaments, invigorated by this thoroughly merited victory.

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