Spain Actually Won EURO 2008? How? Why?

In the 78th minute of the EURO 2008 final it became quite clear to anyone still unsure that Spain were and are simply a better side than Germany. While Luis Aragones took off goalscorer and matchwinner Fernando Torres to replace him with the Primera Liga´s Pichichi Daniel Guiza, Joachim Loew responded with an attacking substitution of his own, replacing the anonymous Miroslav Klose with VfB Stuttgart´s Mario Gomez. Now, Mario Gomez is not a bad player at all. He can easily hold a candle to Guiza, at least in terms of scoring records for 2007/2008, having finished just behind Luca Toni as the Bundesliga´s second highest scorer. Indeed, as the subject of transfer speculation linking him to clubs as distinguished as Bayern Munich and AC Milan, he certainly appears to have a bright future. However as Klose left the pitch, shoulders hunched and looking quite anonymous as he had done all tournament, Gomez ran onto the pitch, he too with shoulders hunched and an unconvincing look on his face. Appearing bereft of confidence after some indifferent performances in the group stage, he then went on to produce what was a quite ordinary and...well, anonymous shift on the field.

As for the man he replaced you would be hard pressed to convince anyone that Klose was a World Cup Golden Boot winner two years ago based on his largely lacklustre showing. When you bear in mind that Guiza might not have even played had David Villa been fit, it offers an insight into the relative strength in depth of the two squads, and when looked at from this angle Spain are the better team.

You need only glance at the two squads to realise just how strong this Spain squad really are. In goal for instance, Joachim Loew had to choose between Jens Lehmann and Timo Hildebrand, neither of whom shined last season with their clubs. Lehmann was not even first choice for Arsenal. Meanwhile Aragones could call upon either Iker Casillas, in my opinion the world´s best keeper, or Pepe Reina, another competent stopper who is at least a regular for club. Two of the German Nationalmannschaft´s best players during the tournament, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski, are far from automatic choices at Bayern, yet were key components of their national side´s route to the final. Spain on the other hand could only really find a place for Cesc Fabregas, the Premier League´s Young Player of the Season 2007/2008, when Golden Boot winner David Villa got injured. Players like Ruben de la Red and Xabi Alonso while important for their clubs struggled to secure any vast amount of playing time. And in attacking areas, as if to solidify the point, Spain could afford to leave out the Primera Liga´s breakthrough sensation Bojan Krkic and its most renowned statesmen and second top league goalscorer of all time Raul. The decision to omit the superstar, though heavily criticised in the Spanish press before the tournament ultimately proved a brave and wise choice. Germany have good strikers, but none as technically brilliant and cerebrally clinical as the duo of Fernando Torres and David Villa.

The closer you assess the Spanish squad the harder it becomes to fathom that, before the tournament, Germany were favourites and the Iberians were wallowing freely in their own shell of doubt and pessimism while people poked fun at their repeated inability to produce the goods at major competitions. In England, Sky Sports presented an ´Im Supporting Spain´ campaign for those fans of home nations that had failed to qualify, and in it the piece happily mocked the fact that, like England, Spain would surely fall at the quarter finals stage as they always do. In an edition of World Soccer magazine prior to the tournament Xabi Alonso implored Spanish fans ´not to create too much expectation.´ Even when la seleccion made it to the quarter finals to face Italy, the media´s almost unanimous verdict on the prospect of facing the world champions was - ´Oh No,´ Luis Enrique´s bloodied face from USA 1994 plastered all over the papers. This incredible inferiority complex, based on years of failure, appears to have seeped deeply into the national psyche and was prevalent even before proceedings in Austria and Switzerland began, the result of which effectively masked Spain´s enormous amount of talent and promise.

Praise the manager, begrudgingly

In victory, praise must also go to the manager Luis Aragones for gelling together a young squad that also boasted a togetherness that has been so lacking from previous Spain squads riddled with divisions, often based on a Barcelona-Real Madrid divide. High-profile veterans like David Albelda and Raul were left out and a youthful squad was intricately constructed and allowed to grow into a unit that could deliver a prize the nation was so desperately seeking. The tiki-taka style of pass and move and an emphasis on possession football suited the game of players like Andres Iniesta and Xavi, while use of the excellent Marcos Senna (certainly one of the tournament´s best players) as a shield in front of the defence allowed the more expressive players freedom to roam as well as giving Joan Capdevila and Sergio Ramos the opportunity to break down the flanks where necessary. This tactic was used to devastating effect against Germany particularly, with Ramos seemingly everywhere. Whether Aragones should have even been in charge of Spain given racist comments about Thierry Henry in 2005 is a subject for debate, but the Spanish Football Federation stuck by him in handing out a pitifully small fine, and the rest is history.

As Brian at the Run of Play correctly points out, in winning EURO 2008 and delivering the nation´s first major football honour in 44 years, Spain were also at the heart of more or less every major story in the competition. They eliminated the world champions and broke their Italian jinx. They destroyed Russia once and then again, just when Guus Hiddink´s men began to be spoken about as the real deal. They made Andrei Arshavin look ordinary (though lets be honest, he is not the second coming of Maradona people made him out to be after the Holland game). And finally, they beat down a German side that simply could not find a plan B to thwart their impressive gameplan. Throughout the tournament they were tactically spot on.

For Spain now, all the disappointments and self-doubting can finally be forgotten. They are European champions and deservedly so.