Sports Betting Blog

Let it there be no doubt, Spain is currently experiencing it’s golden age in sports, and by no means is soccer an exception. Forget about the haters that claimed that the Spanish style is not beautiful, that their game is effective but ultimately boring. Let’s get this one right from the start: Vicente del Bosque’s squads played a magnificent game of football against the Italian squad for the EURO 2012 Championship. And the Azzurri never had a chance. From the start, Spain kept a flowing, one-touch, quick and swift play with which they constantly found it’s way pass the Italian defense, to take a 4-0 win to leave no doubters behind. This is the finest soccer team in the world. After this display of talent and courage, Spain became the first team to win three straight major tournaments and the first to repeat as Euro champion.

Earlier during the tournament, and for the first time in a while, the Spanish team looked vulnerable. Losing their all-time leading scorer, David Villa, had dogged the side throughout. Del Bosque opted to try to cover-up his lack of offensive talent, playing with a false nine formation, appearing to be playing without a true striker. But for the Final match in Kiev, the Spaniards shook it up a bit and started Cesc Fabregas up in the front. The Spaniards relied heavily on a fast-paced short play game. The Italians on the other hand, were going for the long pass and it became evident from the start that Andrea Pirlo was aiming his passes straight up to the young and talented striker Mario Balotelli who kept on trying to impose with his physicality over another rough guy: Spaniard defender Sergio Ramos.

But the big difference was that for this match, the Spanish National team was taking shots whenever it’s strikers had a close look. It took the team less then 15 minutes to break this one down. Andres Iniesta cut open the Italian defense to find Fabregas a step ahead of Giorgio Chiellini. A little too much space and Fabregas got things rolling, opening enough space between him to send the ball in for David Silva to head it into the goal of Gianluigi Buffon. It was a strong game and from the start, the Spaniards new that this one would go their way. Just take into account the following record, this very defining streak: Spain has won all of the previous 70 matches in which it had taken the lead. That’s a win every time they scored first since September 2006.

The rest of the goals came in soon enough. The Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas send a goal kick straight to Xavi. He controlled the ball and sent a swift pass into the path of flying down Jordi Alba, who controlled the ball and sent it straight into the goal for the 2-0 advantage in the game. In the 75^th minute Cesc Fabregas was substituted by the striker Fernando Torres. He didn’t miss a beat to make a strong impression and score his 3^rd goal in the tournament. As if that was not enough, just four minutes later he provided the assistance for Juan Mata’s goal. That’s 4-0.