[typography font=”Crimson Text” size=”16″ size_format=”px”]Euro 2012 came to a close on Sunday with a stunning performance by Spain, certainly their best of the tournament to secure them the third major trophy in four years.[/typography]
[typography font=”Crimson Text” size=”24″ size_format=”px”]Playing for the History Books[/typography]
[typography font=”Crimson Text” size=”16″ size_format=”px”]A lot has been said about Spain looking fragile at the back by missing Carles Puyol while up front no one thought that a striker-less formation could go all the way after David Villa had to watch the tournament from the sidelines due to injury. Other accusations were that Spain have become boring by exaggerating their possession based football a.k.a tiki taka. Both claims are arguable. Rather, Spain have demonstrated that they are in a class of their own when it comes to implement their playing style. In the final Spain played in a 4-3-3 formation while Italy attempted to dominate midfield with a 4-4-2. Two strikers, Mario Balotelli and Antonio Cassano should have provided attacking power, but failed as their supply dried up during the game. Cesare Prandelli, outsmarting Jogi L
Hi Christoph,
Great article. I was very impressed with Spain’s ability to stop Pirlo for more or less the entire match. I think he was Italy’s main source of service in the previous five matches so stopping him was imperative to Spain winning.
Some people are suggesting that Spain playing without a centre forward for most matches was quite negative. What do you think to that?
Hi Simon,
thanks for your opinion.
I believe Spain looked as though they were not bothered in the first place and turned up the heat only when they had to. They increased the pressure after Italy scored, had an easy game against Ireland and were pushed to the edge by Croatia. However, they succeeded, which means they are psychologically so cool and convinced of their abilities that it was only a matter of upping their game a notch, et voil