European Football Championship 2012 / Spain

This article covers the Spanish national team at the 2012 European Football Championship in Poland and Ukraine . It was the ninth participation for Spain. Since the finals were played with 16 teams from 1996 onwards, Spain has always been able to qualify. The Spanish team emerged as defending champions after winning the title for the second time in 2008 . Since Spain also became world champions in 2010 , a team took part as reigning world and European champions for the second time since 1976 . Spain defended the title by beating Italy 4-0 in the final and became the first European team to win three titles in a row. This had previously only been achieved by Uruguay at the 1922 Copa America , the 1924 Olympic Games and the 1924 Copa America .

qualification

Spain completed the qualification for the European Championship in Group I . The Selección qualified mathematically for the finals on September 6, 2011, two game days before the end, and ultimately won all eight matches. Besides Germany , Spain is the only team to win all qualifying games, but had to play two fewer games. The team's top scorer was David Villa with a total of seven goals, who replaced Raúl as the record scorer in the qualifying match against the Czech Republic on March 25, 2011 .

Games

All results from a Spanish point of view.

date	Venue	opponent	Result	Goal scorers
09/03/2010	Vaduz ( LIE )	Liechtenstein	4: 0 (2: 0)	1-0 Fernando Torres (18th), 2-0 David Villa (26th), 3-0 Fernando Torres (54th), 4-0 David Silva (62nd)
10/08/2010	Salamanca	Lithuania	3: 1 (0: 0)	1: 0 Fernando Llorente (47th), 1: 1 Darvydas Šernas (54th), 2: 1 Fernando Llorente (56th), 3: 1 David Silva (79th)
10/12/2010	Glasgow ( SCO )	Scotland	3: 2 (1: 0)	1: 0 David Villa (44th, E), 2: 0 Andrés Iniesta (55th), 2: 1 Steven Naismith (58th), 2: 2 Gerard Piqué (66th, ET), 3: 2 Fernando Llorente ( 79.)
03/25/2011	Granada	Czech Republic	2: 1 (0: 1)	0: 1 Jaroslav Plašil (29th), 1: 1 David Villa (69th), 2: 1 David Villa (72nd, E)
03/29/2011	Kaunas ( LTU )	Lithuania	3: 1 (1: 0)	1: 0 Xavi (19th), 1: 1 Marius Stankevičius (57th), 2: 1 Tadas Kijanskas (70th, ET), 3: 1 Juan Mata (83th)
09/06/2011	Logroño	Liechtenstein	6: 0 (3: 0)	1-0 Álvaro Negredo (33rd), 2-0 Álvaro Negredo (37th), 3-0 Xavi (44th), 4-0 Sergio Ramos (52nd), 5-0 David Villa (59th), 6th : 0 David Villa (79th)
07/10/2011	Prague ( CZE )	Czech Republic	2: 0 (2: 0)	1-0 Juan Mata (7th), 2-0 Xabi Alonso (23rd)
10/11/2011	Alicante	Scotland	3: 1 (2: 0)	1: 0 David Silva (6th), 2: 0 David Silva (44th), 3: 0 David Villa (54th), 3: 1 David Goodwillie (66th, E)

table

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Pt.
1	Spain	8th	8th	0	0	26: 06	24
2	Czech Republic	8th	4th	1	3	12: 08	13
3	Scotland	8th	3	2	3	09:10	11
4th	Lithuania	8th	1	2	5	04:13	05
5	Liechtenstein	8th	1	1	6th	03:17	04th

Squad

23-man squad for the finals of the European Football Championship 2012. With the third captain Carles Puyol , who had to undergo surgery on his right knee shortly before the end of the season, and record goalscorer David Villa , who could not recover in time from a broken tibia , the Spaniards were missing two regular players from previous tournaments at the European Championship finals.

Jersey no.	Surname	society	birth date	International matches	Länderspiel- gates	debut	Last use	EM games	Sp.	Gates	red	G / R	yellow
goalkeeper
01	Iker Casillas	real Madrid	May 25, 1981	137	0	0June 3, 2000	0July 1, 2012	0 (2000), 3 (2004), 5 (2008)	6th
12	Víctor Valdés	FC Barcelona	Jan. 14, 1982	8th	0	0June 3, 2010	0June 3, 2012
23	Pepe Reina	Liverpool FC	Aug 31, 1982	25th	0	Aug 17, 2005	May 30, 2012	1 (2008)
Defense
02	Raúl Albiol	real Madrid	04th Sep 1985	34	0	Oct 23, 2007	0June 3, 2012	2 (2008)
03	Gerard Piqué	FC Barcelona	0Feb. 2, 1987	45	4th	Feb 11, 2009	0July 1, 2012		6th				1
04th	Javi Martínez	Athletic Bilbao	0Sep 2 1988	8th	0	May 29, 2010	0Oct 7, 2011		1				1
05	Juanfran	Atlético Madrid	0Jan. 9, 1985	1	0	May 26, 2012	May 26, 2012
15th	Sergio Ramos	real Madrid	30th Mar 1986	92	6th	26th Mar 2005	0July 1, 2012	5 (2008)	6th				2
17th	Álvaro Arbeloa	real Madrid	Jan. 17, 1983	41	0	26th Mar 2008	0July 1, 2012	1 (2008)	6th				2
18th	Jordi Alba	Valencia CF	21 Mar 1989	11	1	Oct 11, 2011	0July 1, 2012		6th	1			1
midfield
06th	Andrés Iniesta	FC Barcelona	May 11, 1984	71	11	May 27, 2006	0July 1, 2012	6 (2008)	6th
08th	Xavi	FC Barcelona	Jan 25, 1980	115	11	Nov 15, 2000	0July 1, 2012	0 (2004), 5 (2008)	6th
10	Cesc Fàbregas	FC Barcelona	0May 4th 1987	69	10	01st Mar 2006	0July 1, 2012	6 (2008)	6th	2
14th	Xabi Alonso	real Madrid	Nov 25, 1981	102	15th	Apr 30, 2003	0July 1, 2012	2 (2004), 4 (2008)	6th	2			2
16	Sergio Busquets	FC Barcelona	June 16, 1988	45	0	0Apr 1, 2009	0July 1, 2012		6th				1
20th	Santi Cazorla	Málaga CF	13 Sep 1984	45	6th	May 31, 2008	June 23, 2012	5 (2008)	2
attack
07th	Pedro	FC Barcelona	July 28, 1987	18th	2	May 29, 2010	0July 1, 2012		3
09	Fernando Torres	Chelsea FC	20 Mar 1984	98	31	06 Sep 2003	0July 1, 2012	3 (2004), 5 (2008)	5	3			1
11	Álvaro Negredo	Sevilla FC	Aug 20, 1985	12	6th	Oct 10, 2009	June 27, 2012		2
13	Juan Mata	Chelsea FC	Apr 28, 1988	19th	6th	28 Mar 2009	0July 1, 2012		1	1
19th	Fernando Llorente	Athletic Bilbao	Feb. 26, 1985	20th	7th	Feb 19, 2008	Feb. 29, 2012
21st	David Silva	Manchester City	0Jan. 8, 1986	64	18th	Nov 15, 2006	0July 1, 2012	5 (2008)	6th	2
22nd	Jesús Navas	Sevilla FC	Nov 21, 1985	20th	2	Sep 14 2009	June 27, 2012		3	1
Trainer
	Vicente del Bosque		Dec 23, 1950			Aug 20, 2008		1 (1980)	6th

1. ↑ ^{a b} After the final against Italy (according to UEFA information) ( Memento of the original from June 15, 2012 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. 
2. ↑ Status: Before the start of the European Championship finals
3. ↑ As a player

preparation

The Spanish national team began their training camp on May 22nd in Schruns , Austria , where they had already settled in preparation for the 2010 World Cup . The players from the cup finalists FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao were not there . Juan Mata and Fernando Torres from Champions League finalists Chelsea joined the rest of the team on May 25th. In the course of the training camp, the Selección played two friendly matches; On May 26, the team won 2-0 against Serbia in St. Gallen , the goals scored by Adrián López and Santi Cazorla . On May 30, the Spaniards faced South Korea's selection (4: 1) in Bern . The national team then returned to Spain, where, with the players from FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbaos in the squad, a final preparatory game against China (1-0) in their home city of Seville was on the program on June 3rd .

Crew quarters

On June 4th, the team moved into their team quarters in the Hotel Mistral Sport in Gniewino, Poland . From there, the Spaniards traveled to both the group matches to nearby Gdansk and the quarter-final match in the Ukrainian Donetsk . The team left Poland on June 26th and, after the semi-finals held in the Donbass Arena , settled in at the Opera Hotel in Kiev to prepare for the final .

Games of Spain

Preliminary round

Spain contested the preliminary competition in the Group C . As the first on the UEFA rankings , the Spaniards were placed as the group head. The last time they played against Italy was a 2-1 defeat before the European Championship on August 10, 2011 in Bari . The record against Italy was negative before the European Championship with 8 wins, 11 draws and 10 defeats, at the European Championship finals there were two draws and one defeat. The last game in the quarter-finals in 2008 was won by the Spaniards on penalties. Before the European Championship, Spain and Ireland last met in the second round of the 2002 World Cup , where the Spaniards prevailed on penalties. The record against Ireland is positive (13 wins, 7 draws, 4 defeats before the European Championship). They have never met before at an EM.

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Spain	3	2	1	0	006: 100	+5	07th
2.	Italy	3	1	2	0	004: 200	+2	05
3.	Croatia	3	1	1	1	004: 300	+1	04th
4th	Ireland	3	0	0	3	001: 900	−8	00

All preliminary round matches of the Spanish team took place in the Polish city ​​of Gdansk .

Sun., June 10, 2012, 6:00 p.m.
Spain	-	Italy	1: 1 (0: 0)
Thursday, June 14, 2012, 8:45 p.m.
Spain	-	Ireland	4: 0 (1: 0)
Mon., June 18, 2012, 8:45 p.m.
Croatia	-	Spain	0: 1 (0: 0)

Knockout round

Spain moved into the quarter-finals as group winners and met France, the runner-up in Group D. Both had previously played against each other 30 times, with 13 Spanish wins, 6 draws and 11 defeats and a goal difference of 57:35 before the European Championship. The French were able to win twice at the European Championship finals: 1984 2-0 in the final and 2000 2-1 in the quarter-finals. In the preliminary round in 1996, the two separated 1: 1. Spain won the last game between the two teams on March 3, 2010 in Saint-Denis 2-0. The two will meet again in qualifying for the 2014 World Cup. For the first time Spain was able to win a competitive game against France and for the fourth time in a row they made it into the semi-finals of a tournament. There the Spaniards met their neighbor Portugal, the most common international opponent. The overall balance was positive with 16 wins, 12 draws and 6 defeats with a goal difference of 72:41 before the European Championship. The last time they met each other was on November 17, 2010 in Lisbon and Spain suffered their biggest defeat against Portugal at 4-0. The last competitive game between the two ended 1-0 for Spain in the round of 16 of the 2010 World Cup. At the European Championships, the two met twice in the preliminary round, first in 1984 (1: 1) then in 2004 (0: 1). After winning the penalty shoot-out, the Spaniards met Italy again in the final, against whom they drew 1-1 in the first game. Both of them have never faced each other in a European Championship or World Cup final. In a game led by the Spaniards they were able to defend their title with a 4-0 record win.

Quarter-finals, Sat., June 23, 2012, 9.45 p.m. in Donetsk (8.45 p.m. CEST )
Spain	-	France	2: 0 (1: 0)
Semi-finals, Wed., June 27, 2012, 9:45 p.m. in Donetsk (8:45 p.m. CEST )
Portugal	-	Spain	0: 0 a.d., 2: 4 i. E.
Final, Sun., July 1, 2012, 9:45 p.m. in Kiev (8:45 p.m. CEST )
Spain	-	Italy	4: 0 (2: 0)

Awards

Andrés Iniesta was voted the best player of the European Championship. Iker Casillas , Jordi Alba , Gerard Piqué , Sergio Ramos , Xabi Alonso , Sergio Busquets , Andrés Iniesta, Xavi Cesc Fàbregas and David Silva were voted into the UEFA All-Star Team of the 23 best players of the tournament. This made Spain the largest contingent and the only team players from all parts of the team. Fernando Torres , who scored three goals like five other players, was named top scorer because he needed less time to play.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ List of jugadores convocados para la EURO de Polonia y Ucrania. (No longer available online.) In: RFEF . May 27, 2012, archived from the original on May 29, 2012 ; Retrieved May 27, 2012 (Spanish). 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.  
2. ↑ España se concentrará el 4 de junio en Gniewino. In: As . December 4, 2011, Retrieved February 29, 2012 (Spanish). 
3. ↑ Finalists have chosen their quarters. In: UEFA . January 31, 2012, accessed February 29, 2012 .