European Football Championship 2008 / Spain

This article covers the Spanish national team at the 2008 European Football Championship . After beating the German national soccer team 1-0 in the final, she became European champion and, with David Villa, was also the tournament's top scorer (four goals).

qualification

Group F was rated as quite strong with a total of four participants in the 2004 European Football Championship . The Spaniards disappointed at the beginning, lost their first two away games against Northern Ireland and Sweden and for this reason were only in third place for a long time, which would not have been enough to qualify. The team, which was at times under strong criticism from the media, achieved eight wins in the last nine matches with only one draw and thus ended Group F in first place, two points ahead of Sweden.

Another reason for Spain's success was the 4-1-4-1 line-up introduced by coach Aragonés. A game system with four attacking midfielders did not actually exist before. In the course of the qualification, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi, Cesc Fàbregas and David Silva earned the reputation of Die fantastischen Vier (Spanish Los Cuatro Fantásticos ). Marcos Senna played as a defensive midfielder. During the finals, Aragonés relied on a more conventional line-up with two strikers in most games, but when top scorer David Villa injured himself in the semi-finals, Spain returned to 4-1-4-1 and won the European Championship.

Final table group F

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Pt.
1	Spain	12	9	1	2	23: 8	28
2	Sweden	12	8th	2	2	23: 9	26th
3	Northern Ireland	12	6th	2	4th	17:14	20th
4th	Denmark	12	6th	2	4th	21:11	20th
5	Latvia	12	4th	0	8th	15:17	12
6th	Iceland	12	2	2	8th	10:27	8th
7th	Liechtenstein	12	2	1	9	9:32	7th

Game results

The winner is in bold.

date host guest Result Gates 09/02/2006 Spain - Liechtenstein 4: 0 (2: 0) Torres 20 ', Villa 45', 62 ', Luis García 66' 09/06/2006 Northern Ireland - Spain 3: 2 (1: 1) Healy 20 ', 65', 80 ', Xavi 14', Villa 52 ' 07/10/2006 Sweden - Spain 2: 0 (1: 0) Elmander 10 ', Allbäck 82' 03/24/2007 Spain - Denmark 2: 1 (2: 0) Morientes 34 ', Villa 45 + 1', Gravgaard 49 ' 03/28/2007 Spain - Iceland 1: 0 (0: 0) Iniesta 80 ' 06/02/2007 Latvia - Spain 0: 2 (0: 1) Zakreševskis 45 '(own goal), Xavi 60' 06/06/2007 Liechtenstein - Spain 0: 2 (0: 2) Villa 8 ', 14' 09/08/2007 Iceland - Spain 1: 1 (1: 0) Hallfreðsson 40 ', Iniesta 86' 09/12/2007 Spain - Latvia 2: 0 (1: 0) Xavi 13 ', Torres 86' 10/13/2007 Denmark - Spain 1: 3 (0: 2) Tamudo 14 ', Ramos 40', Tomasson 87 ', Riera 89' 11/17/2007 Spain - Sweden 3: 0 (2: 0) Capdevila 14 ', Iniesta 39', Ramos 65 ' 11/21/2007 Spain - Northern Ireland 1: 0 (0: 0) Xavi 52 '

Details: European Football Championship 2008 / qualification

Team selection and preparation

In 2008, Spain took part in a European Championship finals for the eighth time.

In the squad were Fernando Navarro , Santi Cazorla , Rubén de la Red , Sergio García and Andrés Palop, five players who had not yet made their debut in the national team. On the other hand, the Spanish record scorer Raúl was absent , as was Barcelona's young star Bojan Krkić , which led to great discussions in the Spanish public. With four players each, Valencia CF and Liverpool FC made up the largest contingent.

Before the start of the finals, you played two preparation games; on May 31, the Spaniards won 2-1 against Peru in Huelva . Villa and Capdevila met on the side of the Spaniards, and Rengifo achieved the interim equalization of the Peruvians . On June 4th, the Selección celebrated a 1-0 win against the USA in Santander . The only goal scorer was midfielder Xavi .

Spanish contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the European Championship	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Iker Casillas	real Madrid	05/20/1981	5	0	1	0	0
13	Andrés Palop	Sevilla FC	10/22/1973	0	0	0	0	0
23	Pepe Reina	Liverpool FC	08/31/1982	1	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Raúl Albiol	Valencia CF	04.09.1985	2	0	0	0	0
3	Fernando Navarro	RCD Mallorca	06/25/1982	1	0	0	0	0
4th	Carlos Marchena	Valencia CF	07/31/1979	5	0	1	0	0
5	Carles Puyol	FC Barcelona	04/13/1978	5	0	0	0	0
11	Joan Capdevila	Villarreal CF	02/03/1978	5	0	0	0	0
15th	Sergio Ramos	real Madrid	03/30/1986	5	0	0	0	0
18th	Álvaro Arbeloa	Liverpool FC	January 17, 1983	1	0	1	0	0
20th	Juanito	Betis Seville	07/23/1976	1	0	0	0	0
midfield player
6th	Andrés Iniesta	FC Barcelona	05/11/1984	6th	0	1	0	0
8th	Xavi	FC Barcelona	January 25, 1980	5	1	0	0	0
10	Cesc Fàbregas	Arsenal FC	05/04/1987	6th	1	0	0	0
12	Santi Cazorla	Villarreal CF	12/13/1984	5	0	1	0	0
14th	Xabi Alonso	Liverpool FC	11/25/1981	4th	0	0	0	0
19th	Marcos Senna	Villarreal CF	07/17/1976	5	0	0	0	0
21st	David Silva	Valencia CF	01/08/1986	5	1	0	0	0
22nd	Rubén de la Red	Getafe CF.	06/05/1985	1	1	0	0	0
striker
7th	David Villa	Valencia CF	December 3rd, 1981	4th	4th	1	0	0
9	Fernando Torres	Liverpool FC	03/20/1984	5	2	1	0	0
16	Sergio García	Real Zaragoza	06/09/1983	1	0	0	0	0
17th	Daniel Güiza	RCD Mallorca	08/17/1980	4th	2	1	0	0
Trainer
	Luis Aragonés		07/28/1938

Crew quarters

The Spanish national team started their training camp on May 26th in the Ciudad del Fútbol , the sports center of the Spanish Football Association , in Las Rozas .

On June 5th, the team moved into their EM quarters in Neustift in the Stubaital, Austria .

Games of Spain

Preliminary group D

rank	country	Gates	difference	Points
1	Spain	8: 3	5	9
2	Russia	4: 4	0	6th
3	Sweden	3: 4	−10	3
4th	Greece	1: 5	−40	0

Spain started the tournament with a convincing 4-1 win over Russia . Man of the game was Villa , who contributed three goals to the success. The Selección's second encounter was more even , with a Torres goal quickly taking the lead against Sweden , but Ibrahimović equalized in the first half. The Iberians fixed the victory only in stoppage time with a goal from Villa. Before the last group meeting against Greece , Spain was mathematically determined as group winners, which is why coach Aragonés spared most of the regular players. Nevertheless, the third victory was achieved with a 2-1. On the side of the Selección , de la Red and Güiza each scored their first goals for the national team, previously the Greeks had taken the lead through Charisteas .

Spain finished the group stage in first place, but had the reigning world champion Italy , who had reached second place in preliminary round group C, as opponents for the quarter-finals .

Tuesday, June 10, 2008, 6:00 p.m., in Innsbruck
Spain	-	Russia	4: 1 (2: 0)
Saturday, June 14, 2008, 6:00 p.m., in Innsbruck
Sweden	-	Spain	1: 2 (1: 1)
Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 8:45 pm, in Salzburg
Greece	-	Spain	1: 2 (1: 0)

Details: European Football Championship 2008 / Group D

Quarter finals

In a game marked by great caution on the part of both teams, no goal was scored in regular time. On penalties, Spain goalkeeper Casillas was able to save De Rossi and Di Natale's shots , while his opponent Gianluigi Buffon only managed a save against Güiza , while all other Iberians scored. Thus, the Selección finally moved 4-2 into the semi-finals.

Sunday, June 22, 2008, 8:45 pm, in Vienna
Spain	-	Italy	0: 0 a.d., 4: 2 i. E.

Details: European Football Championship 2008 / final round # quarter-finals

Semifinals

No goals were scored in the first half of the pouring rain game between Spain and Russia. In the 50th minute, Xavi finally used a template from his club colleague Iniesta to make it 1-0 for the Selección . As a result, the Spaniards repeatedly came up with top-class chances, mostly via fast counterattacks. Güiza used one of these in the 73rd minute, after a presentation by Cesc Fàbregas , for the second goal. The final point to 3-0 was set by Silva in the 82nd minute. Thus, after 1964 and 1984 , the Spaniards made it into a European Championship final for the third time in history.

Thursday, June 26, 2008, 8:45 p.m., in Vienna
Russia	-	Spain	0: 3 (0: 0)

Details: European Football Championship 2008 / final round # semifinals

final

The Spanish national team won the European championship in 2008 with a 1-0 goal from Fernando Torres in the 33rd minute. This was also the first title in a major tournament in 44 years.

Sunday, June 29, 2008, 8:45 pm, in Vienna
Germany	-	Spain	0: 1 (0: 1)

Details: European Football Championship 2008 / Final round # Final

Web links

Commons : Spain at the European Football Championship 2008  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Article at rp-online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Article at fussball-em-total
3. ↑ Article at ruhrnachrichten.de ( Memento of the original from September 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.