Euro 2008 Final: Y Viva Espana!

Spain ultimately triumphed in a major international competition. It has taken them 44 years to rescale the European peak but they are there now. Goal.com reflects on the nation’s historic win over Germany in Vienna….

30-Jun-2008 5:19:54 AM

Euro 2008: Spain - Germany (PA)

Where I am is no limit, no walls, no ceilings No intermission, so let Let the party begin…..

And the party began. Not so much as a bunch of teenagers jumping around after a particularly heavy night on the booze as a whole lot of wild animals on the drinking spree. And what a spree!

In a match that had everything (except the odd red card) from great moves to individual brilliance, from celebrations to tears, Spain might have ended their 44 year old trophy drought leaving Germany to lament how-close-but-still-so-far yet again, but at the end of the day the spectacle gifted during the Euro 2008 final between Spain and Germany at the Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna on Sunday night was a massive treat.

The Final Night

This was the night when Spain at long last finally managed to kiss some silverware, the night when the Iberian underachievers eventually achieved something, the night when Don Quixote was finally driven off on a donkey’s back to no-one-cares-where.

This was also the night when Germany once again failed to win a final, the night when the Germans played their hearts out and trickled out their souls, the night when Michael Ballack left the pitch yet again complaining of the train deserting him at the final hurdle.

Great Spectacle

But there was no complains whatsoever of the match itself, no denying that this was one of the best final matches you are ever going to observe in your life. There was no last minute dramatic goal or a hideous head-butt but it had everything else.

Both Germany and Spain played lovely expansive football. There was end-to-stuff from start to finish and while Spain always appeared the better side, and the more entertaining, the Germans were never quite booted out of the game, always sustaining a whisper of hope about themselves.

The Spanish Perspective

Spain, with all their creative resources, were adamantly on the top and justified their favourites tag with some confidence. With David Villa desperately watching from the bench with a muscle injury but with his full Spanish kit on, Spanish national team coach Luis Aragones resorted to a five-man Spanish midfield. And it, for once, worked!

Cesc Fabregas played behind Fernando Torres in attack and was ably and aptly supported by Xavi, David Silva and Andres Iniesta. Iniesta has have had a torrid competition overall, looking exhausted and without spark, but was pulling the strings in the midfield in the final as was his FC Barcelona clubmate Xavi. Fabregas’ inclusion in the starting line-up or be it by force helped stretch the midfield and also provided Spain with more options as they rampaged the Germans.

Spain were more creative and had more and better chances. They could have wrapped up the match long before the final whistle had the likes of Fernando Torres, David Silva and Sergio Ramos been a little more aware and had a little more rub of the green.

Their defence, although vulnerable during set-plays and during crosses, played its part. Carles Puyol, in spite of all his erratic positional sense, managed to keep himself conscious during the match, Carlos Marchena was again a rock at the hart of the citadel, Joan Capdevilla was efficient as usual and Sergio Ramos suddenly rediscovered his old rhythm and poise. And then of course there was Marcos Senna, the Brazilian-born Spanish international defender, the big reason why Villarreal finished second in La Liga last season, the 31-year stalwart in the centre of the park dong all the dirty work, the water-carrier for Espana.

And then it was Fernando Torres who scored the goal that should alter the whole contour of the nation. After a run of poor games when he could hardly justify his place in the starting line-up, El Nino was again impressive and demonstrated just why he was Atletico Madrid’s big hope not so long ago. He was lively throughout and the goal that he scored exhibited his strength and finesse in front of goal.

The German Perspective

As for the Germans, they were outclassed, outplayed, outfoxed, outwitted, and outsmarted by a slick Spanish side that was certainly more gifted and technically superior to them. Captain Fantastic Michael Ballack was a huge present for the Germans in the middle of the park and while the likes of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Miroslav Klose and Torsten Frings tried their best, they couldn’t quite match the tempo and the plethora of ideas of the Spain.

The Germans were actually caught short of imagination against the Spanish and were on more than one occasion caught offguard. Germany didn’t play an aesthetically sound football in the competition but it was their efficiency, endeavour and never-say-die spirit that had extended their run to the final stretch.

The Ballack Woe

But not beyond. In a collision between the Spanish technical prowess and the German astuteness, it was the romantic Spanish rather than the hard working Germans who shot the ball home. And how hard it must have been for Michael Ballack, the man who must surely now feel resented even by the idea of a final match.

Ballack lost three finals on the trot with Bayer Leverkusen in 2002, couldn’t play in the 2002 World Cup final because of suspension, failed to win the UEFA Champions League final with Chelsea in May 2008 and now this. A final curse?

The Spanish Triumph

But no such jinx anymore for Spain. This was a month that the 23-man Spanish squad busted a series of myths and banished all the curses and dark legacies created around the national team for almost a century. Spain won their first match against Italy in 88 reluctantly dragging years; Spain trekked through the quarter-final stage in a major international competition for the first time in 24 years; Spain took revenge against Italy for the 1994 World Cup humiliation and Luis Enrique Martinez’s bloodied nose. All on June 22, the fateful date on which the Iberian nation had been knocked out of the last three major international competitions.

But now Spain have exorcised their ghosts and slain their dementors. They have now won 12 matches on the bounce and Luis Aragones, who now departs to Fenerbahce, has become the most successful coach in Spanish football history with 39 wins in 53 matches. And becomes the oldest coach to win the European championships.

Luis Argones assembled an immensely talented but somewhat disunited squad in 2004 and metamorphosed it into a winning side, a side that can “compete”, a side that can ignore the political divisions and regional bigotry so decisive in Spain and play for one another. He might not be popular among the RFEF members or with the country as a whole but he is the man who has ultimately won Spain something. And that something is the Euro 2008.

Y Viva Espana!

Subhankar Mondal

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Euro 2008 Final: Y Viva Espana!

Spain ultimately triumphed in a major international competition. It has taken them 44 years to rescale the European peak but they are there now. Goal.com reflects on the nation’s historic win over Germany in Vienna….

30-Jun-2008 5:19:54 AM

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