Spain Vs. Italy, Euro 2012 Final: La Roja Are The Champions Of Europe

This only ended the match about 30 seconds earlier than it should have based on the stoppage time added, but it was still a great gesture of sportsmanship from Casillas. Even though Spain were coasting to a win before Motta’s injury, Italy were holding their own, and it was awful to see the match ended prematurely by an injury.

It’s unlikely that Casillas’ gesture is going to take any sting off the loss for Italy fans, but at least it makes the game’s two late goals feel much less like an act of showboating. It’s obvious that Spain didn’t intend any disrespect, based on their captain’s actions.

So the Balotellification of football hasn’t happened yet. Mario will have his day, but yesterday wasn’t it. Yesterday, and 2012, like 2010 and 2008, belonged to Spain.

For all their recordable brilliance, though, Spain owed us a performance to remember. Whether or not this was it, history will tell us: “I don’t think we’re ready to see what we have done yet” - Cesc Fabregas. Legacy is for later but, for me, Sunday’s final offered two moments which defined this era defining team, now.

Sixteen teams from around Europe convened on Poland and Ukraine for three weeks and played 31 matches all to find out one thing -- Spain reign supreme. By the end of Sunday’s final, it seemed like the only reason the tournament was even played was to answer whether or not Spain are the best team ever.

But that wouldn’t be fair to what was a tremendous three weeks of soccer. Headed goals were all the rage and there were goals of all kinds aplenty, with just two matches all tournament finishing goalless.

If you’ll recall, a fan made a beeline for the Mets’ dogpile following Johan Santana’s no-hitter just about a month ago -- the first in team history. But this man ... well, he was brazen.

Good job, good effort, Mr. Field Stormer. You almost had it.

Fernando Torres’s daughter, Nora, was born in July 2009. Spain has not lost in the knockout stage of a tournament since she was born. That makes her showing up on the pitch after Spain’s 4-0 evisceration of Italy to celebrate with her padre a sweet little thing to see.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that she was wearing pigtails with her father’s jersey.

The finish was an anti-climactic one and Italy were robbed of a chance to fight their way back into the match by a freak injury, but there’s no taking anything away from Spain. They were well on top for the entire match, and it would have been very surprising if the Azzurri managed to fight their way back into the game. Vicente del Bosque’s side were fantastic on Sunday night and have cemented their place as one of the greatest international sides of all time.

You can find all of our previous coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

Oh, and then Torres sets up Mata for the fourth goal. This is fair.

(This is not fair.)

We have live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

We have live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

We have live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

So yeah, that should have been a penalty, but whatever. It’s 2-0. Spain are winning this anyway.

We have live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

Update: Spain 4-0 Italy, Final Score

On one particular early move, Spain looked like they might be content to just sit on the ball as per usual, and it might have lulled the Italians into a false sense of security. In the 10th minute, they ended what felt like a minute-long, 40-pass move with a shot by Xavi, which went screaming over the bar. Italy didn’t close down at any point during the move, content to sit back and let Spain keep the ball away from the goal.

We have live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

We have live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

The Real Madrid goalkeeper is somewhat harder-pressed to keep out another effort a few minutes later from long range, but his punch avoids any blue shirts and Spain can escape.

We have live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

Chiellini’s substitution is probably a good thing. He clearly wasn’t one hundred percent and wasn’t moving well whenever Spain attacked him. Nevertheless, this Italy defence suddenly feels far less secure. If Spain are in the mood to get more goals (which they’re generally not, to be fair), this could be a very very bad day for Italy.

We have live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

We have live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

European soccer is well known for many traditions, and one of the best-loved ones is the creative use of placards and other things to create tifos. The Euro 2012 final pre-game ceremony took that to the next level, trading tifos for dancers on the field. And it was trippy.

In case you forgot what a soccer player looked like, they formed one.

Italy will need to improve the way they’re picking up the Spanish runs soon or they’re going to pay a pretty steep price.

We have live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

We have live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

*If you reeeeally like short passing.

We have live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

We’ll have features, news updates and live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

We’ll have features, news updates and live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.

In the face of a vortex of words on ‘philosophy’, the swirling vocabulary of ‘tiki-taka’, ‘double pivot’ and ‘trequartista’, it is easy to lose track of the innate simplicity of football. However disguised intellectually, football remains a game in which 22 individuals grouped into two sets of 11 try to ‘score on’ their opponents and try to prevent their opponents from ‘scoring on’ themselves. Logically speaking, football is a ‘closed system’ since the rules of the game and the related parameters imposed on events by the physical demarcations of the pitch seriously limit the range of possible interactions and outcomes. Which, though, is to stray close to confirming my initial claim and thereby undermine my initial premise: that football is a simple game.

Mario Balotelli seems to have figured this out. In advance of Italy’s glorious evisceration (made so by its beauty, paradoxical fragility and near forgivingness) of Germany, Why Always Me described football simply as ‘a job’ and likened the scoring of goals to the successful delivery of post. In his interview with Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, Balotelli answered an awe-struck question about his ability to convert penalties in high-pressure situations (“I couldn’t do it”) by pointing that “I am much better at football than you” and, then, “It’s my job.”

Of course, Spain are the better side and could render all of this irrelevant if they play their best game going forward, but Italy aren’t exactly massive underdogs, thanks to the matchup problems that their two registas present, as well as the tactical astuteness of their manager. If del Bosque can’t figure out how to account for Pirlo while outsmarting Prandelli, an upset could be on the cards.

We’ll have features, news updates and live coverage of the match in our Spain vs. Italy, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.