The Spanish player deserved a win last night.
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The authors of Spain’s 4 goals are David Silva, Jordi Alba, Fernando Torres and Juan Mata respectively.
The wide gap in the score partly reflects the match at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev (Ukraine), where Spain completely dominated the amount of time they held the ball and the number of opportunities created.
On the other hand, Italy could not maintain the tough look they showed from the beginning of the tournament.
After the match, Mario Balotelli seemed to have tears in his eyes.
Last night’s victory gave Spain its third consecutive official championship, after Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010. An unprecedented achievement in world football history.
On the way to becoming a legend for an entire generation, Torres also managed to make himself great – becoming the first player to score in two Euro finals (4 years ago he was the only one to score).
The Italian players nonetheless had a better tournament than expected.
There may be opinions that Spain is not worthy of winning the championship.
In fact, Spain did not play so badly that it deserved criticism.
That’s why Spain sometimes plays with a 4-2-3-1 formation, and sometimes switches to 4-6-0.
Those strengths were vividly portrayed in the final match last night.
It was Fabregas who contributed to creating the first good opportunity of the match in the 10th minute. However, Xavi’s shot narrowly sailed over the bar.
Spain (red) dominated Italy in every aspect last night.
The loss forced Italy to step up its attack.
In their efforts, Italy also showed why they reached the final this year.
While still struggling to find a way into Spain’s goal, Italy was seriously caught off guard at the backline.
After the break, Italy still wanted to prove they had not given up.
Being in a position where they needed to attack, coach Prandelli made a somewhat confusing decision to bring in defensive midfielder Thiago Motta to replace Montolivo.
At this point, everything became too easy for Spain.
In the 84th minute, Torres – who replaced Fabregas nearly 10 minutes earlier – escaped very quickly before finishing past goalkeeper Buffon, increasing the gap to 3-0 (See Clip).
The script in the remaining minutes did not have any breakthroughs.
Squad
Spain: Casillas, Pique, Ramos, Arbeloa, Alba, Iniesta (Mata – 87′ ), Xavi, Fabregas (Torres – 75′ ), Alonso, Busquets, Silva (Pedrito – 59′ ).
Goals: Silva 14′, Jordi Alba 41′, Torres 84′, Mata 88′
Italy: Buffon, Chiellini (Balzaretti – 21′ ), Abate, Barzagli, Bonucci, Marchisio, De Rossi, Montolivo (Motta – 56′ ), Pirlo, Balotelli, Cassano (Di Natale – 46′ ).