Euro-2012 Posts:

Is This Spain Side The Greatest International Team Ever?

By Gregory Wakeman | July 6, 2012 @ 1:02 pm
Spain

There was a moment during last Sunday's European Championships final when the whole of the footballing community seemed to take a gigantic sigh and finally admit that they were watching something special.

Spain were knocking the ball around so sumptuously that it was beginning to feel like a farce, even though the Italian side they were facing had been depleted to ten minute due to injury. Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas and Silva were playing a brand of football that hadn't been seen for years and with this 4-0 victory over Italy, they won their third national trophy in a row on the back of their Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010 triumphs.

But, with these successes have come many questions. Have Vincente Del Bosque's men changed football forever by not playing a recognised centre forward? Is their possession based football boring or entertaining? And where do they rank alongside the other great international teams? I've decided to tackle the latter.

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Spain Wins Euro 2012!

By Gregory Wakeman | July 2, 2012 @ 7:40 am
Spain v Italy - UEFA EURO 2012 Final

The sight of Iker Casillas lifting a trophy is beginning to get boring. The sight of Spain playing football at their very best isn't dull in the slightest. In fact it's exhilarating.

Italy came into the Euro 2012 final as the slight underdogs with many actually predicting that they might be able to cause an upset. But come the match's conclusion there was no doubting that this Spanish side is the greatest in Europe at the moment and maybe they're actually the best ever.

From the opening minute of the match you could see that Spain were at their wonderful best. They were nullifying the efforts of Andrea Pirlo and despite once again not starting with a recognised centre forward they were making the greatest strides in attack.

So it was no surprise when Cesc Fabregas crossed in for David Silva to give the Spaniards a 14th minute lead. And even though Italy upped their performance after conceding, Del Bosque's men still seemed to be in control and they scored a second goal through their left back Jordi Alba four minutes before half time.

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Euro 2012 Final Preview! Italy vs Spain

By Gregory Wakeman | June 29, 2012 @ 11:21 am
Euro 2012

And then there were two. After just over three weeks of tremendous football, which has been interspersed with some dire refereeing decisions, the occasional dive and way too much racist chanting, Euro 2012 will finally be decided by a match between the Italians and the Spanish.

Observational football fans will know that this is the second time that these two nations have competed in this year's tournament, with their opening Group C encounter having finished 1-1. But this is different. Both of these teams knew that they had two more games after that to reclaim any lost ground, now they are simply competing for the right to call themselves the best footballers in Europe.

Many people will believe that Italy have the most to lose. Spain won Euro 2008 and then followed up this success with the 2010 World Cup, so their place amongst the pantheons of world football greats is secure.

What difference would another European Championships make?

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Italy Outclasses The Germans To Join Spain In Euro 2012 Final

By Gregory Wakeman | June 28, 2012 @ 2:38 pm
Mario Balotelli

Mario Balotelli, take a bow. You've been labelled a liability, a moron and sometimes even a footballer, now you can be called a genius. Hardly anybody believed that the Italians would be able to beat the almighty Germans tonight, but somehow they summoned up all of their strength and not only defeated the 3-time European Champions, but utterly outclassed them too.

As with their defeat of England, Andrea Pirlo dictated play from his deep midfield position. But it would be a great injustice not to salute his fellow midfield warriors in the shape of Danielle De Rossi, Claudio Marchisio and Riccardo Montolivo, each of whom stifled and pounced on any German player in their vicinity.

Despite a shaky start from their usually stalwart goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, Italy took the lead through a Mario Balotelli header from an Antonio Cassano cross in the 20th minute. Germany were shell shocked (Too soon?) and Italy looked like the team most likely to get the second goal of the game, which they did on the 36th minute.

A German corner was cleared and Montolivo delivered a defence splitting pass that took out three defenders and Super Mario was able to control his half vollied shot and drive it into the roof of the net from the edge of the area with Manuel Neur already diving to his right.

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Euro 2012 Quarter Final Preview

By Gregory Wakeman | June 19, 2012 @ 4:56 pm
Euro 2012

So, there you have it. The group stages of Euro 2012 have been completed. There have been some tremendous moments over the last 11 days from the 16 nations involved with only Holland and Ireland truly giving terrible accounts of themselves with dire and tepid displays.

Many sporting pundits have even labelled this Championships the best in the tournaments history with there still yet to be a 0-0 stalemate in any encounter.

But what else has happened so far in Poland and Ukraine? Well, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored one of the greatest ever European Championship goals against France but it wasn't enough to get Sweden through. Cristiano Ronaldo put in a superlative solo performance against the Dutch to help Portugal defeat their Northern European neighbour.

Greece defied the odds again, as they did in 2004, to squeeze through Group A with their only victory of the tournament. And England's two banks of four have miraculously stifled and stuttered their opposition to get the team to top of Group D.

This has now set up some splendid quarter final contests and it's impossible to predict how they might pan out, well all except for the fact that the Germans will end up in the final. Check out below for a preview to these games, where all of my predictions will almost certainly be wrong. You can't blame a guy for trying though.

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Which Nation Will Win Euro 2012?

By Gregory Wakeman | June 11, 2012 @ 2:26 am
Spain Euro 2008

The 2012 European Championships kicked off on Friday evening with a 1-1 draw between Poland and Greece.

Of course before this pulsating 90 minute encounter the opening ceremony took place and was populated by some singing children, woeful dancers and a pianist trying to do kick-ups. Trust me, you missed nothing, although watching a classically trained musician attempt to compensate for his lack of football skills by spinning the ball on his finger in front of 60,000 drunk Poles was quite amusing.

But with the competition now in full swing which nations are the main contenders to lift the Henri Delaunay Trophy, the formal name for the cup, in Kiev on July 1st?

Euro 2008 winners and current World Champions Spain are heavily fancied, the Netherlands have only improved since finishing as runners up in 2010, France are unbeaten in 21 games and Germany are, well, Germany.

Here is a run-down of the favourites for Euro 2012! The less said about England, the better.

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Euro-2012 to Brace for Bare Breasts (VIDEO)

By Travis Pulver | May 22, 2012 @ 8:40 am
FEMEN activist prepares to bare all
Bare Breast as a Protest? Umm...Okay!

When I first read about the Euro-2012 (short for 2012 UEFA European Football Championship) having to step up security because of the promised attacks by a group of activists, I thought they had heard of some bombing or other kind of violent attack that was being planned.

Then I heard that it was by a group called FEMEN, a Ukrainian group of women that was trying to bring attention to the sex tourists trade, international marriage agencies, sexism and other social, national and international ills I thought okay; worthy cause. Then I heard that they protest by taking their tops off and baring their breasts.

They go topless--as a protest. Read More » »

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