Spanish victory that was pure brilliance... a masterclass
BY mid-2012, Vicente Del Bosque’s Spain team had become to international football what Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona had become at club level a year earlier – royalty.
They were mesmerising, breathtaking and poetry in motion. A joy to watch.
Incredibly, as they made their way to the final of Euro 2012, accusations were levelled that they had become boring.
That they had not performed anywhere near as well that summer as they had in winning Euro 2008 and the
World Cup two years later.
But in the showdown with Italy they delivered a firm rebuke to the snipers by producing one of the classiest displays in European Championship history.
One which saw them enter the record books as the first international team to win three successive major tournaments.
Having beaten France in the quarter-finals and Portugal in the semis, Spain took the lead against Italy after just 14 minutes.
Former Arsenal and Chelsea star Cesc Fabregas, employed as a ‘false nine’ by Del Bosque, picked out Manchester City star David Silva with a cross, and he opened the scoring with a rare header. Spain doubled their lead late in the first half through Jordi Alba, leaving Italy with a mountain to climb.
Not that you could rule out Cesare Prandelli’s team, which featured several legends of the Italian game, including Gigi Buffon, Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini and Andrea Pirlo.
Mario Balotelli played as well. Despite such a stellar cast, however, and impressive victories against England in the last eight and Germany in the last four, Italy simply couldn’t cope with the masterclass Spain delivered.
And when the Azzurri were reduced to 10 men – with third substitute, Thiago Motta, who had been on the field for only five minutes after replacing Riccardo Montolivo, carried off with an injury – any faint hopes they still harboured of lifting the trophy were extinguished.
Spain midfielder Xavi continued to dictate the tempo of the game and, after robbing Pirlo of the ball with six minutes of normal time remaining, he fed former Liverpool and Chelsea striker Fernando Torres, who in turn fired home.
In doing so, Torres became the first player to score in back-to-back European Championship finals, following on from his goal against Holland four years earlier.
Xavi and Torres were not finished yet, either, and when they combined again, Manchester United star Juan Mata – then of Chelsea – put the seal on a convincing and memorable victory.
Boring? They must have been joking.