Past tournaments - Euro 2008

24May 2012

EURO2012

Euro 2008 will always be remembered as the event in which Spain made their big breakthrough to win an International tournament to finally reward their ability as a team. Greece who were defending champions went out with a whimper coming bottom of their group with no points. The tournament was also another dismal one for France who followed coming bottom of the group with only one point by then crashing out at the group stages in the 2010 World Cup.

The quarter-finals were dramatic and Germany's 3-2 victory against Portugal got the ball rolling but that was followed by even more dramatic events. Croatia under coach Slaven Bilic looked to have sealed a semi-final place with a goal in the 119th minute and the scenes of Bilic sprinting down the touchline in celebration will live long in the memory. But so will the scenes surrounding Turkey's equaliser in the very last minute of extra time sending the game to penalties which Turkey won.

Spain survived a penalty shoot-out win over the World Champions Italy while Russia were upsetting the odds by beating one of the favourites Netherlands 3-1 after extra time. But from then on it was Spain's tournament and they easily swept Russia aside 3-0 in the semi-final before a Fernando Torres goal was enough to defeat Germany in the final. This was the win that then catapulted Spain to the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa.