Spain has always been a country that lives by sea. The Armada's conquests have spread across the South American continent, Africa, and Asia. But on the football field, they have no previous history of winning titles overseas. Their only previous major title was Euro 1964, but it was played on home soil. This time, their final score, although the same as when Greece won the championship in 2004, was far more popular than the rigid and conservative Greece. The open play allowed them to score a total of 12 goals, making them the leading scorers of this cup. He averaged 21 shots per game, almost double that of runners-up Germany. The 3:0 win over Russia in the semi-finals was also the biggest disparity in the knockout stage.
After the opening, the ferocity of the German team's attack was greatly unexpected. Spain, which had been unbeaten in 21 games before, was a bit nervous after the start, with several passing errors in the midfield, especially Ramos's inappropriate return pass in front of the box in the 3rd minute, which was extremely fatal, and Klose broke the ball and crossed Puyol, if not for the last big foot, it would be a scoring opportunity. In the first 10 minutes, Loew's team took the tactical essence of the rush to the extreme. In particular, the combined attack of Ram and Podolski on the left side made it difficult for the matador to breathe.
After trying on the left side, Germany began to grab Spain on the right side of the road in a row, and even Schinsteiger came this time to provide firepower. In the 7th minute, After Barack's beautiful fake action on the left side of the road, puyol, the ball was sent out and slid dangerously in front of the goal. Spain was once a bit out of control, and in contrast to the Germans' short pass advances, they even went through the top long pass to find Torres, and the effect was not ideal.
Spain, which was played in a 4141 formation, stepped up possession, with Xavi and other midfielders trying to slow down the pace of the game. The trick worked, and Spain began to return the soul. Torres hit the goalpost once in a penalty area scramble to make the game tense and the pace of both sides accelerated. However, Spain's successful blocking of the German team on the left side and Senna's close defense of Ballack gave the German team almost no chance. Instead, the forward movement of several players in the Spanish midfield opened up space for Torres, especially Iniesta's pulling and Fabregas's running position, which dispersed the German team's defensive forces.
Spain, which had stabilized its position, immediately changed color. In the 13th minute, Xavi's left rib was crossed in the middle of the road, and Iniesta Neche, who was transposed from Silva,took a shot, Metzelder subconsciously formed a goal, and Lehmann made a wonderful save. Torres quickly took the shot, singled out two German centre-backs with the ball in succession, and even frequently grabbed a header in the penalty area, especially in the 23rd minute, Ramos crossed from the right, and Torres pressed Mertesack to hold up the upright.
Spain, which gradually took control of the advantage, took the lead in the 33rd minute. Xavi sent a straight plug, Torres, who scored the only goal of the game against Germany in the final of the 2002 U19 European Championship, forced overtaking the opponent of that game, Ram, and after entering the box, he picked the ball past the attacking Lehmann, and the ball jumped into the dead corner with precision. It was Torres' second goal of that tournament, 1:0.
In this game, Torres performed remarkablely, he withdrew more, formed short passes with his midfield teammates many times, and was always ready to receive his teammates' direct plugs and crosses. Defensively, the single striker took the initiative to defend very actively, single-handedly constructing Spain's first defensive line, daring to fight with the opponent for body and speed. The physical speed of the Premier League also makes him not weak in the face of high opponents in the competition for the top.
Just two minutes later, Spain nearly extended the scoreline when Iniesta cut in from the left rib for the Nth time, picked the ball up to the right side of the penalty area, and shot a shot at the unguarded Silva.
After the change of sides, German coach Loew unexpectedly replaced Ram with Janssen, but Spain still frequently found holes in the opponent's defensive line. In the 53rd minute, the unguarded Silva received a corner kick and shot out of the post. Just three minutes later, Xavi did the same and once again went straight to Torres, who broke through Mertesack but was given the upper hand by the attacking Lehmann. The German team, eager to fight back, began to take the impact route of the rush after finding that the ground attack could not play the Spaniards, but the Spaniards had no choice but to use the pure ball control technology to finally dissolve Germany's counterattack brute force into invisibility.
The game went into the German attack at a loss, and Spain's concise counter-attack frequently penetrated the opponent's two types of mode. Spain gave up some of the possession, but had full control of the game. In the 81st minute, Senna broke through the middle of the road to launch an attack, Cazorla crossed from the right, super substitute Guiza crossed back to the goal, Senna faced the empty goal and almost did not poke. In the last 10 minutes, Germany fell into despair, Kuranyi, Schweinsterger and other players frequently attacked fouls, Spain in the patient possession and calm defense to break the 1984 group victory team must not qualify for the Delaunay Cup spell.
Throughout the game, Spain, except for a slightly passive opening stage, completely overwhelmed the German with possession the rest of the time, if it were not for the excessive pursuit of delicate cooperation and repeatedly missed the opportunity to break the goal, the score of this game is definitely not just 1:0.
It was a complete defeat, a match in which Germany was even more passive than the 2002 World Cup 0:2 final against Brazil. The German ultimately failed to fulfill his wish to regain the title after Euro 1996, and Loew became the fifth coach in German history to lead a team to runner-up in the first major event after Schön, Beckenbauer, Foggs and Worrell, and failed to deliver the title's title sheet on the first report card like De Waal. After the game, Loew said: "Spain showed their excellent skills, we were disappointed to lose the final, Germany only had four shots on goal and Spain was more threatening on the pitch. ”