Monday, 30 June 2008 00:00 | and posted in Sport
Spain won their first major trophy for 44 years last night, beating Germany 1-0 in the UEFA Euro 2008 final. A Fernando Torres goal in the first half sealed the game and capped an excellent tournament for Spain, who had won all of their six matches in the tournament and had scored more and conceded less than any other team. More importantly for the Spanish, however, they ended their drought of trophies. Over the years Spain has produced some of the world's best players, yet have always struggled to produce the goods in the major tournaments.
But last night was their night and any other result would have felt like an injustice, as Europe's perennial under-achievers beat Europe's perennial over-achievers. I think it was Alan Hansen, one of the BBC's studio pundits who said that Germany's achievement was that they made it to the final - at no point in the tournament did Germany look like they were good enough to win, whereas Spain had easily been the team of the tournament.
Spain were the deserved winners in a game that, while it ended 1-0, was still a demolition of an average Germany side who couldn't even manage a shot on target. The closest the Spainish goalkeeper and captain Casillas had to worry about in goal all match was a second-half effort by Ballack that was slightly miss-hit and drifted almost a foot wide. The Germans may have towered over the Spanish in height last night, but they were dwarfed by Spain's passing, control and creativity.
The deciding goal came 33 minutes in. Senna, Spain's excellent holding midfielder found Xavi in space just within Germany's half. Xavi looked up and split the often shoddy German defence with a pinpoint pass to Torres who, with a slightly uncontrolled first touch, knocked it passed the German left-fullback, Phlipp Lahm. Running towards goal, Torres was behind and to the left of Lahm, but his pace took him to the right and in front of Lahm (he seemed to want the ball more) and with his second touch deftly lifted the ball over the legs of the onrushing dive of the German keeper Jens Lehmann and into the net. It was a beautifully taken goal by a superb striker who took his moment on the big-stage to shine in the absence of his injured striking partner and Euro 2008's top scorer, David Villa.
Euro 2008 may have been without Scotland or any of the other home nations, but the quality of football on display has made it one of the best tournaments I've seen. There was hardly a dull match within the 31 matches played over the past month, from the counter-attacking brilliance of the Netherlands thrashing both Italy and France, to the never-say-die attitude of the come-back kings Turkey, to the growth and achievement of a young Russian side that even humbled the mighty Netherlands on the way to the semis. This was a great tournament and a great final where Spain becoming the worthy winners.