EURO 2008

Euro 2008 started off with an impressive ceremony, in which there were volunteers making different patterns with colored boxes. The tournament, which was held in Switzerland and Austria, attracted millions of people.

Euro 2008 The tournament started with the group stages, in which half the teams would go through to the knock out stage. The teams that really shone in their group were the Netherlands, who beat both France and Italy by three goals. The shock of the group stages was again in Group C, where Romania drew with both of the 2006 World Cup finalists, Italy and France.

The teams that progressed in to the quarter finals stages were: Croatia, Germany, Portugal, Turkey, Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Russia. The surprise of the quarter finals was definitely the shock result between the Netherlands and Russia, in which the Russians beat the Dutch by two goals, although the team went out at the hands of Spain in the semi final. The other semi final was played between Germany and Turkey, and it was a thrilling game with Germany scoring a last minute winner, meaning the final was between Spain and Germany, which, after a thrilling game, Spain won, becoming European Champions for the first time in forty four years.

Spanish striker David Villa won the Golden Boot (top scorer of the competition award) with four goals, although the player of the tournament was probably between the young Russian player, Andrei Arshavin, who missed the first two games, but his expert performances attracted interest from clubs as big as Barcelona, and Bastien Schweinsteiger, who held the Germans together and scored some fantastic goals for the team.

Overall, it was an extremely enjoyable tournament, with all teams giving one hundred percent of effort, and although there were many outstanding teams, Spain deserved to win, and did so brilliantly with a lot of style.