Spain's European Championships Record The Spanish national football team are surely one of life's great mysteries. An enigmatic mix of talent and under-achievement has haunted them like a ghost for the last 40 years. On paper they are currently one of the finest national teams in the world and always look capable of winning trophies. However, with the 2008 European Championships looming in Austria and Switzerland, a gut-feeling deep down suggests that it is just not going to happen. During their qualifying campaign Spain showed a bizarre combination of both genius and the catastrophic. Who could forget David Healy's marvellous hat-trick against them in Northern Ireland's famous 3-2 victory in Belfast? Couple that with a four game winning streak and a convincing 3-0 victory over Sweden and you have the same old confusing Spanish team.
Spain's strikeforce can easily be viewed as one of the most lethal partnerships in world football. Valencia's superstar David Villa has skill, pace and trickery in his locker, as well as an impressive strike rate. His strike partner Fernando Torres of Liverpool has single-handedly kept his club team's season alive by scoring pretty much whenever he feels like it. Backing up these two stars are players like Tamudo of Espanyol, and Arizmendi of Valencia. Somewhat strangely though the national manager, Luis Aragon�s, has exiled the team's all-time top scorer Raul from the squad altogether.
Spain's only major trophy in their history was when they won the European Championships in 1964. They were the host nation that year and it was also their debut in the competition. They claimed several high-profile scalps on the way to lifting the prestigious trophy in 64. A 2-1 victory in the semi-final over a highly-rated Hungarian squad was a pivotal moment in the tournament, the final was held at Real Madrid's Bernab�u stadium in front of over 125,000 people, Spain won the game 2-1 against The Soviet Union with a late winner coming from Marcelino Mart�nez after the USSR had equalised their earlier strike.
Over the years the team qualified for a further six European Championships, this year being their eighth appearance, but never recreated the form that saw them once lift the trophy. Since that famous victory 44 years ago Spain have built up a reputation as the perennial under-achievers of world football: a reputation they would happily put to bed should they achieve success in Austria and Switzerland this summer.
Spain's Euro 2008 Fixtures:
- 10th June 2008, 18:00 vs Russia in Innsbruck
14th June 2008, 18:00 vs Greece in Innsbruck
18th June 2008, 20:45 vs Sweden in Salzburg
Russia's European Championships Record
The Russian team is ranked 22nd in the ranking issued by FIFA in February 2008. The team is currently managed by Guus Hiddink, who continued to impress everyone by leading the Russian team to Euro 2008 qualification, which unfortunately meant that England won't be appearing in this tournament. In total, Russia has appeared in 2 World Cups (1994 and 2002) and three European Championships (1996, 2004 and 2008). However, in both competitions, Russia has never qualified from its group and was eliminated after just 3 games.
At Euro 1996, held in England, Russia played Germany, the Czech Republic and Italy in Group C. The Russians earned a 3-3 draw against Czech Republic, but lost to Italy (2-1) and Germany (3-0). Russia ended the group stage at the bottom of their group with just a single point. Four years ago in Euro 2004 held in Portugal, Russia was drawn in Group A with eventual finalists Portugal, eventual winners Greece, and Spain. Russia lost to Spain 1-0, lost to Portugal 2-0, but ironically beat eventual European Champions Greece 2-1. Therefore, once again, the team ended this phase at the bottom of the group, with just 3 points and were eliminated.
In the qualifying campaign for Euro 2008, Russia eliminated England on the final day, after winning against Andorra 1-0 (with England losing 3-2 at home to Croatia). Russia went through in the second place and were drawn in Group D with Spain (again), Greece (again) and Sweden. Russia have the right manager to realise qualification from the group stage for them. A combination of hard work and good luck may see Russia doing very well in this group.
Russia's Euro 2008 Fixtures:
- 10th June 2008, 18:00 vs Spain in Innsbruck
14th June 2008, 20:45 vs Greece in Salzburg
18th June 2008, 20:45 vs Sweden in Innsbruck
Greece's European Championships Record
Greece are the reigning European Champions having beaten Portugal 1-0 in the Final in Portugal 4 years ago. Greece do not have a very vast history in the competition. In the Euro 2008, they'll be competing for only the third time in the competition, Greece's first appearance in the competition was in 1980, but in that event, they failed to win a single match.
Their first win in the European Championships was in their first match of Euro 2004, a 2-1 win over Portugal in the group stage. In the other group stage matches, Greece earned an unlikely draw against Spain and lost against Russia, this was though enough for the Greeks to progress. This was already unexpected out of the Greek squad that were given excessively high odds at the beginning of the competition. In the quarterfinals, Greece continued to impress by beating former champions France. Their success did not stop here. They were drawn against the Czech Republic, the only unbeaten team left in the competition, who had managed an astonishing 4 straight wins before losing on a late silver goal to Greece. To the delight of the Greek fans that had spent so much to travel to Portugal, Greece were in the final to meet the Portuguese squad for the second time in the competition. As if this was not already a great success for the Greeks, they went on to score a goal through Charisteas, and hold onto their lead to become the Champions of Europe.
This win soared Greece up in the FIFA rankings, and in February 2008, they stand in 10th place. Greece owe their success partly to their current manager, the German Otto Rehhagel. He always motivated the squad to cause the upsets in the matches they have won against the big teams. Greece will be determined to hold onto their status of champions in this year's European Championship. They were drawn in Group D alongside Sweden, Spain and Russia, quite a coincidence that two of the three teams were in the same group as Greece in Euro 2004.
Greece's Euro 2008 Fixtures:
- 10th June 2008, 20:45 vs Sweden in Salzburg
14th June 2008, 20:45 vs Russia in Salzburg
18th June 2008, 20:45 vs Spain in Salzburg
Sweden's European Championships Record
Sweden qualified for the European Football Championships as runners-up in group F to Spain, with eight victories, two draws and two defeats, the group also contained teams such as Northern Ireland, Iceland and Denmark. Sweden tend to do surprisingly well in major competitions however, realistically they may struggle to even get through the group stages as they are in Group D of the tournament along with Spain, Russia and current champions Greece. Even if they do progress through the group stages, they are likely to have to play either France or Italy in the knockout stages which will be a difficult game to progress from.
Sweden's best performance at a European Championships came in 1992 when they were hosts for Euro 92. Playing in the same group as Denmark, France & England, Denmark went on to win the tournament, but Sweden did beat them in the group stages, Sweden were knocked out at the semi-finals stage, where they were beaten by Germany 3-2.
