A Spanish Armada

Best Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas - Wins by default given the amount of goals Italy conceded.

Best Defender: Jordi Alba - His goal alone was enough to win this award but he also provided Spain with an outlet at every opportunity and seemed to be on the ball as much as Xavi or Xabi Alonso!

Best Midfielder: Xavi Hernandez - At his tiki-taka best, Xavi was a joy to behold. Dominating the game with his metronomic passing, dictating the tempo of the game and strangling the life out of any Italian hope. He picked up two assists but his contribution was immeasurable.

Best Striker: Fernando Torres - The game was over when Torres scored and picked up his assist but he made a fantastic contribution after coming off the bench and actually picked up the Golden Boot courtesy of his pass to Mata.

Surprise Player: Jordi Alba - Yes he was made to look like Usain Bolt by the statuesque Italian defence but his performance was astonishing and he might be able to establish himself as the best left back in the world.


Underachieving Player: Daniele De Rossi - One of Italy's strongest players but he made an error leading to a goal as well as just playing poorly. He was unable to break apart the Spanish possession game but so did every player in blue.

Best Manager: Paulo Bento - Portugal were tactically too strong for Spain and countered superbly. Unfortunately for them, as mentioned before, their talismanic winger and captain just didn't finish well today. His only bad decision was leaving Ronaldo until the fifth penalty in the shootout meaning that he didn't even get the opportunity to score.

Team of the Round:

--------------------------Casillas-------------------------

Arbeloa-------Piqué---------Ramos-------Alba

Silva--------Xavi----------Alonso--------Busquets

--------------------------Fabregas--------------------

---------------------------Torres----------------------

Honourable Mentions - Iniesta, Mata, Pedro

Official Awards

Golden Boot: Fernando Torres - I'll be honest, I did not see this one coming but I still don't think that Torres is back to his best.

Player of the Tournament: Andres Iniesta - I wouldn't have given it to Iniesta as you will see later and this seems like a nostalgic award by the voters.

Final Thoughts - This Spanish team is one of the most successful international teams to ever live and I wonder if this will be enough for them to be remembered as the greatest team of all time. We will see in a few decades but I think they might just have ripped that crown from the 1970 Brazil team's head.