Spain's deserved Euro 2024 trophy: Football's justice!

Spain celebrates championship - Photo: REUTERS - Graphics: M.TANH

Defeating England 2-1 in the final, Spain won Euro 2024, thereby becoming the most successful team in the tournament with 4 championships.

Intact value

Of Spain's previous three championships, two were back-to-back. That was the period when they completely dominated world football from 2008 to 2012. But even when compared to Euro 2024, that period of victory for the "bulls" cannot be as beautiful.

In Germany this summer, Coach De La Fuente and his team were the best players, had the most beautiful attacks, were the most generous, the most emotional... and also went through the most challenging journey.

At the end of the group stage, many fans were worried that Spain would be caught out in the knockout stage. While giants such as England, France, the Netherlands, and Portugal started slowly, Spain accelerated right from the first match of the group stage with a 3-0 victory over Croatia.

Right from the first match, Spain almost brought out all of their firepower. That was the "angel wings" Nico Williams - Lamine Yamal. It was a Fabian Ruiz who continuously broke through in the middle. It was a diverse, direct playing style instead of the familiar tiki-taka style...

Spain quickly asserted their attractive style at Euro 2024. They emerged as a rare bright spot in attacking football, in a tournament where most big teams chose to play tight, lurking football.

What is beautiful is often fragile and easy to snatch. That was the lesson of Germany at the 2006 World Cup, or the Netherlands at Euro 2008 - both played beautiful attacking football but both could not go too far.

Especially at Euro 2024, Spain's path is the most difficult possible. They fell into the group of death with Italy and Croatia. Then they faced host Germany in the quarter-finals, France in the semi-finals, England in the final. Spain single-handedly defeated 5 giants.

Until the final, there was a lingering fear that the attacking team would be unlucky to lose, a fear that only grew when Cole Palmer scored a stunning equaliser for England.

That was almost England's first notable attack until the 73rd minute. On the other hand, Spain missed about 6-7 good chances.

But what had to happen happened. Oyarzabal's goal ended a tournament where football's logic spoke for itself. Spain dominated England in terms of shots (16 to 9), possession (65% - 35%), corners (10 - 2)...

The better team won the final, just as the best team in the tournament won the championship.

The strongest football in the world

The convincing championship of Mr. De La Fuente and his team once again affirmed the truth that Spain is the most powerful football nation in Europe.

There are many reasons to believe in that statement. First is the strength of La Liga clubs, when they have the most achievements in both the Champions League (20 titles, of which Real Madrid has won 15 times) and the Europa League (14 titles).

On an individual level, La Liga has 24 Ballons d'Or, with Messi winning six while at Barca and Ronaldo winning four while at Real Madrid. Serie A - the second-tier league - has just 18 Ballons d'Or, and the noisy Premier League has turned out to have just six.

Spain is strong at both the elite and youth levels. According to statistics in 2023 from the Center for International Football Studies (CIES), Spain owns 2 of the 5 best youth academies in football: Barca's La Masia and Real Madrid's Castilla.

With such resources, Spanish football never lacks quality players.

At Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup, Spanish football was seriously divided when coach Luis Enrique favored Barca and ostracized Real Madrid. After the failed World Cup in Qatar, the Spanish Football Federation chose coach De La Fuente to take over the hot seat.

Correct choice

An unassuming choice, but one that turned out to be the right man at the right time. De La Fuente has been coaching Spain’s youth teams since 2013. And most of the team’s current mainstays have worked with him before.

Furthermore, De La Fuente is completely fair. The team he brought to Germany this summer can be divided into three parts. Real Madrid's experience with three players over 30, including two key defenders.

Barca's youth team includes 4 players, along with 3 other La Masia alumni Olmo, Cucurella and Grimaldo. And the remaining group are middle-class teams such as Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Sevilla but play an equally important role as the group of players from the two biggest clubs in Spain.

What stands out most is Coach De La Fuente's courage in using young players, when he boldly gave the starting position to "young boy" Lamine Yamal - who just celebrated his 17th birthday on July 13.

The world's most powerful football nation produces the most technically gifted stars, and has the best clubs and training facilities.

And at Euro 2024, they played the most beautiful football. Spain winning is the right thing to do in football.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/cup-vo-dich-euro-2024-xung-dang-cua-tay-ban-nha-le-phai-bong-da-20240715233738438.htm