Euro 2008: Spain Deserving Winners Of A Wonderful Tournament

Spain 1 - 0 Germany

42 years of hurt: Spain's reputation as perennial underachievers can finally be put to bed, after they ended over four decades of failure with a fantastic victory in the Euro 2008 final against Germany. Despite missing tournament top scorer David Villa through injury, Spain's majestic midfielders barely allowed Germany a sniff of the ball and carved out a fully deserved victory.

Fernando Torres, the £25m Liverpool striker, was the match winner with a terrific 33rd minute goal. A long slide-rule through ball by Xavi, who this morning was named Player of the Tournament by a group of UEFA experts, set Torres off on a chase with German defender Philipp Lahm, and goalkeeper Lehmann coming off his line.

Despite starting behind him, Torres' speed and strength got him by Lahm just before Lehmann arrived, and he deftly flicked the ball over the onrushing goalie and into the far corner of the net. It was just reward for Torres, who had hit the post earlier with a header, and whose strong running all tournament had facilitated the goals with which team-mate Villa stole the limelight. There were further chances for Spain to win the game, with a Sergio Ramos header being well parried by Lehmann, and a late run by Marcos Senna almost resulting in a wonderful clincher had he been able to stretch his foot a further few inches. Germany were unable to create many clear chances, and their increasing frustration threatened to boil over at times as desperate players flew into reckless tackles.

But nobody could argue with the result, or that Spain weren't deserving winners overall: the only team in the last-4 to have won all their group games, only Italy held the Spanish to a draw. Otherwise, they were superb.

Torres' goal was a fitting climax to a wonderful tournament. It had everything a football fan could ask for - great goals, drama, surprises, great players - and very little of what we don't want to see - diving and injury simulation, red cards or bad injuries, bad refereeing. Here's my round-up:

Goals of the Tournament:

3. Sneijder (Netherlands) v. Italy (group stage, r1) - his clinching goal against France was a beauty too, but this was better: starting with Giovanni van Bronckhorst clearing an Italian chance off his own goal-line, the counter-attack moved at such pace, and was so expertly executed with perfectly sprayed passes, it was the first indication of the awesome ability of the new Dutch team. Italy didn't know what had hit them. This goal shook up the tournament.

Article Author: Ally Brown

Ally Brown is a Scottish freelance writer specialising in music and football.

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