Hala Espana! Hala Campeones!
Spain are the champions of Euro 2008. In a well contested final with Germany the Spaniards emerged as winners and finally lifted a major trophy since the 1964 European Championships. St.Iker, the captain of the team and Sergio Ramos were a part of the playing XI in the final and played all but one match in their campaign. Ruben de la Red the other Madridista in the team. He played only one match but came scoring a superb goal in a 2-1 victory over Greece. Fernando Torres scored a beautiful winner and Xavi was awarded the player of the tournament trophy. On the other hand, Christoph Metzelder ended up on the losing side marking a fairly decent tournament that he has had considering the fact that he is just recovering from a serious injury. David Villa was the top scorer of the tournament with four goals despite missing out on the final game through injury. Wesley Sneijder, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben, Pepe and Fabio Cannavaro all had to bow out in the quarter final stage. Wesley Sneijder though emerged as one of the brightest talents in the world of football. In all it was a superb tournament for all the Madridistas especially after considering the fact that they were just out from a tiring season which saw them win their 31st league title, the second in as many years.
You can find the match report of the final match here.
Out of the23 best players in the tournament, three of them hail from Real Madrid. Iker Casillas, obviously was one of the three best keepers. Pepe was amongst the list of defenders and like I mentioned earlier is amongst the elite midfielders.
UEFA EURO 2008™ Team of the Tournament
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Iker Casillas (Spain), Edwin van der Sar (Netherlands).
Defenders: Bosingwa (Portugal), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Carlos Marchena (Spain), Pepe (Portugal), Carles Puyol (Spain), Yuri Zhirkov (Russia).
Midfielders: Hamit Altıntop (Turkey), Luka Modrić (Croatia), Marcos Senna (Spain), Xavi Hernández (Spain), Konstantin Zyryanov (Russia), Michael Ballack (Germany), Cesc Fàbregas (Spain), Andrés Iniesta (Spain), Lukas Podolski (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands).
Forwards: Andrei Arshavin (Russia), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Russia), Fernando Torres (Spain), David Villa (Spain).
The champions on their return to Madrid were given a grand welcome by hundreds of thousands of people. All gathered in the centre of the city as the Kings of Spain welcomed the Kings of Europe. It was a delightful sight. The King was there to greet the champions and it was one helluva celebration.
Sergio Ramos paid tribute to the late Antonio Puerta who was a close friend of his during his Sevilla days. He wore a specially printed t-shirt which had a photo of Antonio Puerta and the words, “Always with us” on the front and the number ‘16′ on the back.
A night to remember indeed!
Hala Madrid!!
