"This is the greatest european national team ever seen"
said Mike Ingham chief football correspondent of the BBC when he referred to Spain this morning on R4. And who could argue with that. They truly are superb. bewildering brilliance stemming from a culture of exploring home grown talent through the two master teams...Barcelona and Real Madrid. Players from these giants make up something like 90% of the squad.
But...Italy wont be too disappointed this morning even though they lost 4-0. They had a terrific run in the excellent tournament which is only going to get better in the years ahead, with 8 new countries being accepted for the finals forthwith.
In the game itself the Spanish midfield, all six front players were midfielders, clearly stemmed the creative flow of Italian Andrea Pirlo like no other team was able to before. Pirlo's long balls through to Ballotelli were brilliant previously but didnt happen last night. This normal service supply going straight through to Ballotelli didnt happen..it was nullified...as the Spanish midfield, imported en bloc from Barcelona secured all the play.
Spain were as ever incisive when coming forward, a hot knife through butter, and they truly deserved to win. They have now won the previous European Championship, the World Cup, this European Championship..first time any team has pulled off such a feat. Three in a row...
The tournament all round was totally brilliant...great stuff indeed.
