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Spain reigns supreme
| DATE: 02 July 2012 |
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| BY: Calvin Turnbull |
The World Champions made history when they crushed Italy 4-0, becoming the first European side to win three major international championships in a row.
Many may argue that the 4-0 loss Italy suffered at the hands of the world champions Spain on Sunday at the 2012 Euro Cup final was inevitable. After an embarrassing 90 minutes of football many may be questioning how Italy managed to make it that far through the tournament while simultaneously wishing that the outcome of the semi-final between Germany and Italy had ended differently. The Spanish powerhouse is now being branded one of the best teams in the history of the game, an argument that is very difficult to dispute after they have successfully secured their third consecutive major trophy in just four years and have not lost any of their last 19 competitive matches.
It seemed that Italy could do nothing to prevent the tide of swarming red shorts from neatly depositing the ball in the back of the net a record-breaking four times, which included a classy finish by Fernando Torres, resulting in him successfully nabbing the prestigious Golden Boot award, as well as being the first man to ever score in two UEFA European Championship finals. The goal scorers included David Silva, Jordi Alba and Juan Mata.
It clearly was not Italy’s night though. Giorgio Chiellini had to be substituted after just 20 minutes due to a knee injury. After the initial substitution Italy used up their only remaining two substitutions by the 53rd minute, only to have Thiago Motta stretchered off in the 61st minute. Without any remaining substitutions Italy had to end the game with only 10 men on the park. From that point onwards it seemed an Italian loss was inevitable.
It seems that the Spanish brand of passing football (that was labelled "boring" by many) was too good, yet again. At this rate it seems that the Spanish side could be favourites going into the World Cup in 2014 and the rest of the soccer playing nations have a long way to go before they will be able to challenge the defending World Champions for their title.
