Euro 2008 - Torres ends Spanish wait for glory

[steaner]

The Liverpool striker beat the hesitant Philipp Lahm to a Xavi through ball on 33 minutes and prodded it beyond Jens Lehmann.
Although a dominant Spain side never delivered a knock-out blow, it mattered little as Germany never seriously looked like mounting a comeback.

The victory at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna rounded off a superb tournament for the Spanish, for whom it was a second European triumph in addition to their 1964 win.
It vindicated the decision to keep faith with veteran coach Luis Aragones who came under fire for his results, team selection and an embarrassing racist outburst about France striker Thierry Henry in 2004. Aragones has set the bar high for incoming Spain boss Vicente del Bosque
There can be no doubt that Spain deserved to win the cup as - despite the excitement provided by Russia, Turkey, Netherlands and Portugal - they scored more goals and conceded fewer than any other team.
After a relatively cagey opening 10 minutes that saw Germany make most of the running, Spain slowly took control of the match with their calm possession and quick counter-attacks.
Sergio Ramos had his obligatory lapse of concentration as early as the third minute, although Miroslav Klose's terrible touch spared Spain and Ramos.
The Spaniards had the first effort on target when Lehmann was forced to save from Christoph Metzelder, who almost put Andres Iniesta's low cross past his own keeper.
Spain gained confidence and, with Iniesta in particular able to find space on the left, the single-pronged attack allowed them to break in numbers from midfield, with Torres and David Silva also profiting from great delivery by Xavi and Cesc Fabregas.
Germany, on the other hand, started to regress. Per Mertesacker looked particularly uncomfortable as Torres and Iniesta exploited his positional and decision-making frailties.

Aside from giving them the run of the penalty area and the occasional loose pass to latch onto, the tall Werder Bremen defender's trademark aerial ability was left in the dressing room as the much smaller Torres managed to beat him to crosses on three occasions, one of which saw the ball strike the inside of the post on 22 minutes.
Spain took the lead just after the half-hour when Torres snuck between Lahm and Lehmann to chip the ball home from the edge of the box.
Lahm was culpable as he seemed to let Torres get past when he appeared to have the ball covered. It was a sweet finish though, and no more than Spain deserved as they attacked from deep with pace and flair.
The Bayern Munich full-back paid for his error and was replaced by club team-mate Marce'l Jansen at half-time. It had little immediate effect though, as Spain continued to boss the match after the restart.
Lehmann saved from Xavi, Ramos was agonisingly close to backheeling Silva's low drive into goal, and Lehmann prevented a carbon-copy of Torres's opener when he rushed out to block the Liverpool man.
Germany had a chance when Ballack shot just wide, but that was a short blip and Spain continued to create opportunities - although they could have gone down to 10 men when a confrontation between Lukas Podolski and Silva saw the Valencia winger aim a headbutt at the Bayern striker.
Ramos should have scored but headed straight at Lehmann after shocking Germany marking from a Xavi free-kick, and Torsten Frings then cleared Iniesta's low drive off the line after a short corner.
Germany looked short of ideas and energy, so boss Joachim Loew gambled by bringing on target man Kevin Kuranyi.

It had little effect though as the three-time winners huffed and puffed while Spain sat back and picked their breaks at leisure.
There was a moment of controversy when Lehmann appeared to handle outside the area, while Brazilian-born Spain midfielder Marcos Senna almost capped off a dream tournament with a goal but was unable to connect with substitute Dani Guiza's excellent cushioned header back across goal.

Germany pressed late on, using long balls and throwing on misfiring striker Mario Gomez, but Spain held on for a comfortable win to finally break their run of underachievement.

[Spiral]

Conrgatulations to the Spanish Team

[bimo]

Torres will leave the sportive field instead of his big success , ..why ?