Can Portugal stop the Spanish juggernaut?

27Jun 2012

EURO2012

It is amazing to think that only four years ago, Spain were the nearly men of world football. For so long their top two teams of Real Madrid and Barcelona had graced European and world football with their sublime skills. However success at international level eluded them like the plague and not since the 1960's when they won the European Championships as host nation in 1964 had they tasted success.

They flirted with success when they reached the European Championship final in 1984 but lost to France. A succession of poor performances led to massive frustration from their huge army of fans. However all that was lifted four years ago when Spain won the Euro 2008 trophy. Many people look back at their penalty shootout win in their quarter-final with Italy as being the pivotal moment after they battled each other to a 0-0 draw over 120 minutes of football.

To back that up with another trophy just two years later in South Africa was astounding and only West Germany and France have previously held both the European Championship trophy and the World Cup at the same time. Spain are looking to make history in two ways. They will become the first team to win three consecutive tournaments should they win here and also the first team to ever successfully defend the European Championships.