Spain Reached Euro 2008 Final Beating Russia 3-0 in the Semi Final

Spain has reached the final of Euro 2008 thanks to three second half goals from Xavi Hernández, Dani Güiza and David Silva. By this victory, Spain confirmed their first appearance in a final of European Championship since 1984. Spain will bid for their second European success, first after 44 years, in the final against Germany on 29 June 2008. Spain was excellent throughout the match and created a number of good chances. If Fernando Torres did not miss a handful of chances, Spain could have won the match by 5 or six goals.

In the first half, Spain played well, but could not totally dominate over the Russian side, what they did in the second half. I hardly found any good attack from Russia in the second half except one which Spanish goal keeper Iker Casillas saved magnificently in the closing minutes of the match. In the first half, both Spain and Russia created a number of chances, but the match remained goal less. Spain did not give much room to Andrei Arshavin, Russia’s hero in their triumph over Netherlands. That was very important for Spain and they did it pretty much effectively.

From the very beginning of the second half, Spain started dominating over Russia and in the 50^th minute, from Xavi Hernández brought the lead for Spain. The midfielder found a cross from the left and just tapped it into the net. As I mentioned earlier that Fernando Torres missed a lot of chances in the match. The striker was taken out of the field in the 69^th minute and Dani Guiza came in place of Torres. Guiza took only four minutes to justify the Coach’s decision by doubling Spain’s lead in the 73^rd minute thanks to an excellent goal. Conceding two goals, Russia went for all out attack, which often made their defense too much exposed. Spain confirmed their victory when David Silva scored in the 82^nd minute of the match.

There is no doubt that Spanish fans are now celebrating this historic victory in Vienna in a befitting manner, but the only bad news for them is that striker David Villa picked up a minor injury and was substituted by Cesc Fabregas in the first half. Fabregas appeared with his real form in the second half guiding many attacks of Spain. However, two players: Sergio Ramos and Andres Iniesta- impressed me most throughout the match. Both the players were in excellent form in the match. Iniesta has been man of the match, but Ramos was more impressive with his superb run across the field. I see a future Roberto Carlos in Sergio Ramos who can go up and come down swiftly depending on the situation of the match.

Now, it is a big question if Spain can really stave of the challenge of Germany and take away with their second European title this time around. They are well known as an underachieved team and this is a good chance to come out of that bad patch and justify their worth as a football powerhouse.