A champion performance from a champion team. Spain were just too good for Germany in Sunday's Euro 2008 final
.
Spain's players celebrate with the trophy after the Euro 2008 championships final between Germany and Spain in Vienna, Austria, on June 29, 2008. A first-half goal from Fernando Torres earned Spain the first UEFA European Championship in 44 years. (Xinhua/Guo Yong)
In the course of their footballing lives, very few players will have more than one chance to appear in an International Championship Final. To get there at all is a considerable achievement, one that a player will ultimately look back on with great pride. To get there and hear the final whistle blow, knowing that you have lost, must be the hardest moment of a player's career.
You could read that message in the bitter disappointment on the faces of the German players as they made their way up to the podium to receive their losers' medals. Most disappointed of all may well have been Jens Lehmann, the German goalkeeper. The European Championship Cup stood at the top of the short stairway to the podium. As he waited briefly to receive his medal from Michel Platini, Lehmann let his fingers brush longingly against the trophy. It may be the closest he will ever come to holding it.
Spain's Fernando Torres (Front) controls the ball during the Euro 2008 championships final between Germany and Spain in Vienna, Austria, on June 29, 2008. (Xinhua/Guo Yong)
At the end of the final of Euro 2008, one goal separated Spain from Germany. It was scored in the 32nd minute by Fernando Torres, a man who gave himself wholeheartedly to the Spanish cause and received his just reward.
But Lehmann will probably feel at fault for the goal. It came from a flowing Spanish move through the centre of midfield. Senna fed Xavi Hernandez, and he played a beautifully weighted pass through three German defenders for Torres to run on to. Philipp Lahm had a head start on Torres, and should have been able to clear. But Lehmann was charging from his line to intercept, and Lahm seemed to hesitate, perhaps backing the goalkeeper's judgment that he would get there first.
There was no hesitation from the Spaniard. He brushed his way forcefully but fairly past Lahm, and as Lehmann realized his error, Torres flicked the ball over the German keeper and into the empty net. The first, and ultimately the only goal of the game. A goal that would finally bury nearly fifty years of Spanish agony, despair, and underachievement.
Spain's Carles Puyol (L) vies with Germany's Miroslav Klose during the Euro 2008 championships final between Germany and Spain in Vienna, Austria, on June 29, 2008. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)
Thirty minutes earlier the final had kicked off with the Spanish fans hoping for the best, and yet on the basis of past failures, fearing the worst. Spain were the form team – a convincing semi-final victory over the talented Russians in the face of a German side who knew that they had been fortunate to come through against Turkey.
But for the first few minutes of the match, it seemed that Spanish fears might be justified. Germany took hold of play immediately, moving forward with purpose and no little skill and opening the renowned Spanish defense with confident one-touch passing. As early as the third minute they had their first chance, when a slip by Sergio Ramos offered Klose an opportunity. He burst into the Spanish box but did not control the ball.
Sergio Ramos had been outstanding against Russia, but now he was undergoing a torrid start. It was down the German left flank that most of their attacks were coming. A minute later another neat move gave Lahm an opening in the box, but again Germany failed to capitalize. In the seventh minute it was Ballack who broke through, again down the left, and from the bye-line he chipped a cross over Iker Casillas and across the face of the goal. It was an inviting opportunity that found no takers.
This was a much better German side than we had seen to date, and it seemed that they were well up for the match. The Spaniards, in contrast, were tentative and lacked composure, reduced to sending long balls up to the isolated Torres who could make nothing of them. Would they fight back, or would they fold?
Another minute, and this time it was Thomas Hitzlsperger who was teed up outside the box to the left. His shot was firm and well-directed, but more was needed to beat Casillas from that range, and the Spanish keeper saved comfortably. Astonishingly, for all the possession and territory they enjoyed – they shaded the possession statistics by 53 to 47 - this would prove to be the only effort on target that the Germans managed in the entire match.
