2008 UEFA European Football Championship

2008 UEFA European Football Championship, Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Football Championship. Austria and Switzerland hosted the tournament, which began on 7 June 2008 and concluded with the final at Ernst Happel Stadion in Vienna on 29 June 2008. It was the second successful joint bid in the competition's history. Spain won the tournament by defeating Germany 1–0 in the final. This was only the second time in the history of the tournament that the winning team won all their matches in the group stage; the other team to do so was France in 1984.

Sixteen teams participated in the tournament. Austria and Switzerland automatically qualified as hosts; the remaining 14 teams were determined through qualifying matches, which began in August 2006. As European champions, Spain earned the right to compete for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa.

Tournament

Qualification for Euro 2008 started in August 2006, just over a month after the end of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The qualifying tournament was contested by national teams from each of UEFA's member associations, with the exceptions of Austria and Switzerland , who had qualified for the finals tournament automatically as hosts, and Montenegro, who came into existence too late to be admitted to UEFA. England was the only seeded team not to qualify for the tournament proper, whereas Russia was the only unseeded one to qualify.

The draw for the finals tournament took place on 2 December 200 , and saw Group C immediately called as the "group of death ", with Italy, France, Romania and the Netherlands competing for two qualifying places. In contrast, Germany and Portugal were deemed to have an easy draw, as the tournament structure meant they could not meet Italy, France, the Netherlands or Spain until the final.

In the group stage, Croatia, Spain and the Netherlands all qualified with maximum points. Austria and Switzerland were not expected to progress, despite the advantage of being the hosts. Portugal and Turkey easily defeated Switzerland and Czech Republic. Austria fared slightly better in Group B, managing to set up a decisive final game against Germany, dubbed "Austria's final". However, they lost by one goal, making Euro 2008 the first European Championship not to have one of the host nations present in the knockout stage. The Turks joined Portugal as the qualifiers from Group A. France were the high profile victims of Group C, recording just one point from a 0–0 draw against Romania in their opening game. Italy beat the French on the final day to finish on four points, joining the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. Finally, in Group D , Greece failed to reproduce the form of their shock 2004 win, and ended the tournament with no points. Russia qualified at the expense of Sweden , after beating them in a final game.

In the quarter-finals, the Portugal team was unable to defeat Bundesteam, losing in an exciting game against Germany. Turkey, as usual won in extra time, defeating Croatia 3-2, and advancing on penalties. Coached by Dutchman Guus Hiddink , Russia beat the Netherlands with two extra time goals. The final quarter-finals saw Spain defeat Italy on penalties after a 0–0 draw in normal time.

In the semi-finals, Turkey's progress was halted against Germany. Turkey entered the game with 9 of their squad missing due to injury or suspension, but still scored the first goal, and later leveled the game 2-2, before Germany scored the winning goal in the final minute. The world television feed of the match was intermittently lost during the match, which prevented the broadcast of the second goal by Germany. This was due to a thunderstorm at the broadcasting relay station in Austria, despite the game being played in Switzerland. Spain won the second semi-final against Russia by three goals to nil, through second half goals from Xavi, Daniel Güiza and David Silva, earning Spain their first appearance in a major final for 24 years.

In the final, Spain became European champions for the second time after Fernando Torres's first-half goal in Vienna proved enough to defeat Germany. Though Germany had a strong start, Spain started to look more dangerous after they had settled. After half an hour, Xavi played a pass in behind the Germany back line towards Torres, who outmuscled a hesitant Philipp Lahm and clipped the ball over the diving Lehmann and just inside the far post. That goal proved to be the only goal of the game which Spain dominated, despite Germany having the majority of the possession, and Spain were crowned as champions of Euro 2008.

Stadiums

The tournament was played at eight venues throughout the two host nations; four in Austria and four in Switzerland. Each venue had a capacity of at least 30,000 for the tournament; the largest stadium was Ernst Happel Stadion in Vienna with a capacity of 53,295. It was for this reason that Ernst Happel Stadion hosted the final. Switzerland played all of their group stage matches at St. Jakob Park in Basel, which also hosted the opening match of the tournament as a compromise for the final being held in Vienna.

Results

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Quarter-finals

2008 - 06-19 Portugal 2 – 3 Germany

St. Jakob-Park , Basel
Attendance: 39,374
Referee: Peter Fröjdfeldt ( Sweden )

Nuno Gomes 40' Postiga 87' / Schweinsteiger 22' Klose 26' Ballack 61'

2008 - 06-20 Croatia 1 – 1 ( a.e.t. ) Turkey

Ernst Happel Stadion , Vienna
Attendance: 51,428
Referee: Roberto Rosetti ( Italy )

Klasnić 119'/ Semih 120+2'

2008 - 06-21 Netherlands 1 – 3 ( a.e.t. )Russia

St. Jakob-Park , Basel
Attendance: 38,374
Referee: Ľuboš Micheľ ( Slovakia )

van Nistelrooy 86' /Pavlyuchenko 56' Torbinski 112' Arshavin 116'

2008 - 06-22 Spain 0 – 0 ( a.e.t. ) Italy

Ernst Happel Stadion , Vienna
Attendance: 48,000
Referee: Herbert Fandel ( Germany )

Penalties 4 – 2

Semi-finals

2008 - 06-25 Germany 3 – 2 Turkey

St. Jakob-Park , Basel
Attendance: 39,374
Referee: Massimo Busacca ( Switzerland )

Schweinsteiger 26' Klose 79' Lahm 90' /Boral 22' Semih 86'

2008 - 06-26 Russia 0 – 3 Spain

Ernst Happel Stadion , Vienna
Attendance: 51,428
Referee: Frank de Bleeckere ( Belgium )

-/ Xavi 50' Güiza 73' Silva 82'

Final

2008 - 06-29 Germany 0 – 1 Spain

Ernst Happel Stadion , Vienna
Attendance: 51,428
Referee: Roberto Rosetti ( Italy )

-/Torres 33'

Euro Champions 2008 - SPAIN