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EURO 2008: facts, figures and impressions

     The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Football Championship and is credited to have been a tremendous success. It proved to be quite a spectacular tournament, with 31 matches played and 77 goals scored (2.48 per match). Euro 2008 was attended by 1,140,902 spectators (36,803 per match).
    Spain won the tournament by defeating Germany 1–0 in the final. This was only the second time in the history of the tournament that the winning team won all their matches in the group stage. The other team to do so was France in 1984. Spain performed superbly from start to finish, they scored 12 goals and nobody can question their right to the title.

    The UEFA EURO 2008 Team of the Tournament, named by the UEFA Technical Team was also dominated by Spain as no fewer than nine Spanish players being picked in the final 23: goalkeeper Iker Casillas, defenders Carlos Marchena and Carles Puyol, midfielders Marcos Senna, Xavi Hernandez, Cesc Fabregas and Andres Iniesta, and forwards Fernando Torres and David Villa.

    Also, Spain midfielder Xavi Hernandez has been named the Castrol Player of the Tournament for UEFA EURO 2008. The 28-year-old FC Barcelona player appeared in five matches at the finals, scoring once in the semi-final against Russia, as Spain earned their first major international success since beating the Soviet Union to win the 1964 UEFA European Championship.
UEFA technical director Andy Roxburgh said: “We chose him because we think he epitomises the Spanish style of play. He was extremely influential in the whole possession, passing, penetrating kind of game that Spain played.”

    My personal impression is that the so-called “small teams”, that is the underdogs, proved to be more determined and performance-oriented than the big favorites. In this particular order, Turkey and Russia provided the most pleasant surprises of this EURO 2008. Also some of the best players of this European Championship were some Turkish and Russian playmakers like Semith Senturk, Hamit Altintop or Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko. In my eyes, the only favorite team who reached the level of everybody’s expectations was Spain. Their national team dispayed some skillful and beautiful football, both effective and spectacular.

    As European champions, Spain earned the right to compete for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa.

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