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going to win it at least three or four i d bet before we get going with what actually happened in vienna last night it s time to dispel a quick myth about spain s euro 2008 win before it starts to get out of hand euro 2008 was not by extension a victory of liverpool football club the spain team that started last night contained one liverpool player fernando torres and a further one alonso who got on the pitch as a substitute this has been the pattern throughout the tournament but liverpool supporters are suffering from some extreme delusions of grandeur if they think that last night was about them real madrid barcelona valencia and villareal all fielded more players in the spanish team that kicked off last night than liverpool did the match itself was intriguing rather than exciting a chess match rather than a 100m sprint indeed the best chance of the opening twenty minutes came with andres iniesta s low cross that was deflected goalwards by christoph metzelder forcing an outstanding save from the suddenly vastly improved jens lehmann midway through the first half spain came even closer with torres inexplicably out jumping the massive german defender per mertesacker and and heading the ball past lehmann and against the base of the post spain were getting closer and closer and one began the suspect that a goal for spain had a veneer of inevitability about it when it came it was a goal that was worthy of such an occasion xavi s deep pass caused a moment of uncertainty for germany s left back phillip lahm allowing fernando torres to come in from a seemingly impossible and flick the ball past lehmann and into the empty net torres persistance was such that one couldn t even really fault lahm for taking his eye of the ball for the one hundredth of a second that he did it was a tough break for the german left back who had been one of their best players of the tournament up until that point he was substituted at half time a decision which seemed to rob germany of one of their more effective attacking options into the second half and with michael ballack looking like a bad drag act amy winehouse impersonator after requiring medical attention to a head injury that could quite easily have seen him replaced and spain continued to dominate with xavi shooting narrowly wide from the end of the penalty area and sergio ramos trying to flick silva s driven cross in with his heel it continued to look more likely that spain would score a second goal than that germany would pull the scores level although michael ballack did at least show some sighs of resistance in shooting a foot wide of the penalty area in the closing stages spain again started look like extending their lead the best chance fell to sergio ramos who sprang a feeble german offside trap but found his header well saved by lehmann but the follow up was just as close with the resulting corner ending with torsten frings clearing iniesta s driven shot off the line with all the cliches that follow them around the watching audience could have been forgiving for expecting the inevitable german equaliser but the goal didn t come indeed with ten minutes to play guiza heaed across the face of goal and senna slid in but was unable to apply a finishing touch and the ball drifted harmlessly away spain then are worthy champions the defensive concerns that might have blighted their chances never materialised with carlos puyol and goalkeeper iker casillas playing outstandingly well spain conceded just two goals in their five matches at the other end their attacking play was frequently as breathtaking as anyone else in the tournament s with torres and david villa whose unfortunate injury robbed him of a place in the final showing time and time again that they are truly world class players also one can t help but admire luis aragones no matter what one s opinion of him might be otherwise last night against germany of all people he replaced fernando torres and cesc fabregas of all people yet his team never seriously looked like conceding a goal in the end the difference last night might just have been the attacking players whereas spain had brilliance up front which was best demonstrated by the speed with which they moved the ball from deep midfield players and into attacking positions whilst the likes of miroslaw klose are good players but torres fabregas and villa are on the sort of form demonstrated over the last three weeks or so outstanding players and that on the night was enough germany who had not played especially well throughout the rest of the tournament remember that 2 1 defeat by croatia in the group stages were undone by spain they will be back though it is heartening to see that the best team in the tournament was the eventual winner where spain go from here is considerably more intriguing they have managed to fall short of expectations for much of the last four and a half decades but with the albatross like psychological baggage that comes with the nickname of under achievers now lifted from around their necks what are they capable of spain has never failed to produce excellent players though they have consistently managed to find even more strange and interesting ways to lose than even england have now however england are alone amongst the countries that they would like to consider their peers in having won nothing whatsoever in the last four decades and they don t look like changing that record any time soon spain however deserve our congratulations they re worthy champions of europe don t start getting them confused with liverpool though posted by 200percent at 10 04 pm 6 comments labels euro 2008 friday june 27 2008 brushed aside we had very high hopes for this match didn t we when pressed this was going to be the classic of the two matches the match that would repeated in slow motion with a light opera and indie rock soundtrack as it turned out though russia vs spain was a comparatively one sided match won convincingly by spain against a russian team that really failed to turn up at all andrei arshavin who had given indications that he was starting to believe the hype with his somewhat ridiculous claims that he had always been a barcelona fan was the most notable absence on the night with this performance or lack thereof raising questions about his ability when under the spotlight regardless of how sensationally he transformed the russia team when he returned from suspension meanwhile in a display of an ill wind blowing someone quite a lot of good it was the enforced replacement of david villa with cesc fabregas that really transformed spain fabregas has looked very impressive every time he has made one of his cameo appearances for spain and the likelihood now has to be that he will start the final things might however have been different after a cagey start that saw a couple of comfortable saves from akinfeev and a couple of long shots from russia pavlyuchenko fired a shot from the edge of the penalty area which whistled just wide of the post it took a couple of viewings of the replay to establish that in fact iker casillas had made a magnificent save with his fingertips a save so deft that only the slowest of slow motion replays could pick it up the breakthrough when it came had an element of fortune about it iniesta s cross cum shot from the edge of the penalty area was diverted in by xavi but while iniesta would doubtlessly now protest otherwise i am still less than convinced that his involvement in the move was a cleverly played pass to an unmarked striker i suspect that it was actually a very tame shot that xavi cleverly managed to anticipate and intercept the replacement of fernando torres with guiza proved to be the straw that broke the camel s back for russia for whom this was really a match too far four minutes after guiza s introduction he scored the second goal to put the match beyond them once and for all a neat passing move that cut through the russian defence like a hot knife through butter and finished with him lifting the ball over akinfeev to kill the game as a competition at 2 0 the game slowed to a jog as spain eased up but they still had time to add a third goal with eight minutes to play cesc fabregas whose introduction to the team had completely opened up the russian defence slid the ball across for marios silva to drive the ball in for a third goal quite what happened to russia is a mystery maybe the exertions of extra time against the netherlands last weekend had got to them maybe for the first time they had started to believe the hype about themselves and had managed to persuade themselves that all they need to do was turn up in order to win against spain they had a shock in store luis aragones had clearly watch the video of the russia vs netherlands match over and over again and was determined not to make the same mistakes that the dutch had they didn t cede any ground in the middle of the pitch didn t give away possession easily and kept up a high tempo pressurising russia into making quite a few quite basic mistakes spain however should try and keep their focus one of the more striking things about this tournament is that teams have often followed magnificent performances with very bad ones it happened to portugal it happened to the netherlands and it has now happened to russia if there s one thing that has been regularly punished at euro 2008 it has been complacency posted by 200percent at 8 57 am 3 comments labels euro 2008 thursday june 26 2008 no stopping them in the end then turkey didn t have quite enough about them to be able to keep germany at bay but lord they have given us some fabulous memories in this tournament and will be sadly missed in the final on sunday evening germany by contrast are in the final of another major tournament without having played particularly well last night and will face the winners of tonight s match between spain and russia it promises to be an absolute thriller in all honesty last night s match was played very much in the shadow of this evening s match most of the press attention here over the last couple of days has been drooling over the clash between arshavin pavlyuchenko and villa torres and the column inches dedicated precious little to the internecine battle between germany and turkey but this match far outshone the low expectations that accompanied it much had been made before the match of the selection problems facing fatih terim with nihat joining the heaving treatment table with a knee injury that ruled him out for the rest of the competition the turkish side had an element of a patchwork look about it and it was this that informed the belief that germany would stroll to a comfortable win turkey however started far the stronger of the two teams against a german team that looked simultaneously sluggish and complacent and hit the crossbar early on with a crashing shot from ten yards by kazim kazim semih then shot narrowly wide from a tight angle after germany failed to successfully clear the ball the breakthrough came midway through the first half and had more than an element of luck about it kazim looped a shot over lehmann which came down off the crossbar and squad player ugur put the rebound past the german goalkeeper who curiously tried to stop the relatively tame shot with his feet rather than with his hands the lead lasted just five minutes for turkey and was cancelled out with germany s first serious attack of the match it was a sweeping move from midfield that caught turkey out with hitzlsperger finding lucas podolski in space on the left with his low cross being delightfully turned in by the unfairly derided bastian schweinsteiger it was tough on turkey who had dominated the early stages of the match and one might have expected germany to go on and win the match comfortably from this position but there were still plenty more twists and turns to come germany started to assert their authority more effectively in the second half and lahm was unfortunate not to be awarded a penalty after he was chopped down on the edge of the penalty area although it took a replay to confirm that sabri s foot had been inside the penalty area when it took him out hitzlsperger then shot narrowly over and narrowly wide before germany took the lead prior to this though technical difficulties meant that we lost all pictures from basel the sound of panicking across europe was almost audible as the technicians at the stadium struggled to find which particular lead had become disconnected it turns out in fact that it was a storm near the stadium that was the cause but there were no pictures for a few agonising minutes before they returned without commentary all of this led to alan green s biggest ever audience as people hit the red button on their remote controls and switched to the unharmed bbc radio commentary but the quality of pictures coming from the stadium was still flaky and cut out again just before germany snatched the lead some of you may remember what i said about recber rustu at the weekend and yes he did it again coming unconvincingly for a long deep cross and leaving the goal empty for miroslaw klose to head the favourites into the lead of course you write turkey off at your peril and with five minutes left to play of another breathless match they levelled things up again this time the spotlight was back on jens lehmann sabri wriggled his way clear of lahm and crossed low into the six yard box allowing semih to turn the ball past lehmann and in but the replay again showed that the stuttgart goalkeeper had left his near post hopelessly exposed and the crouching movement that he made in expectation of getting the ball was reminiscent of a wicketkeeper than of an international goalkeeper it was another lapse in concentration from lehmann and not his first of the tournament the sort of thing that will fill the winners of tonight s match with confidence it looked as if yet another late comeback had forced the match into extra time but germany finally broke turkish hearts as the clock ticked over ninety minutes it was i have to say a goal worthy of winning such a match you think that total football began and ended with the dutch side of the 1970s you might want to tell that to phillip lahm who began and ended another thrusting german pass and move attack by sweeping the ball past rustu and in to take germany into the final so another extraordinary match that ended in germany somehow ending up on top one can t help but think of the phrase football is a game of eleven against eleven and in the end it s the germans who win turkey with their squad ripped to pieces by injury and suspension gave it everything they could but didn t quite have enough in the tank to be able to earn a result their performance in this competition has however been absolutely thrilling to watch and they deserve our thanks for having played every single game to the death for them to lose in the same way that they had beaten croatia...