Spain; An Unexpected Journey and Euro 24
The European Championship, which everyone was eagerly awaiting, ended with the victory of Spain. Spain, which was not seen as a clear favorite at the beginning of the tournament, impressed everyone with the magnificent football it played from the beginning of the tournament and fully deserved the championship. The Spanish national team, which was among the favorites such as England, France and Germany and showed much better football than all of them, left its mark on the tournament with extremely effective football and became the European champion for the 4th time. Spain’s success was no coincidence. This was the result of a perfectly prepared system. In this article, I would like to talk about the European champion Spain and the other 23 teams in general.
While everyone was expecting a tournament between France and England, Spain’s championship surprised everyone. Although Spain had a quality squad according to everyone, it was one of the teams that was thought to not have a sufficient squad for the championship. However, the incredibly effective game they played from the beginning of the tournament and the game approach that really excited the audience made Spain one of the favorites from the beginning of the tournament and people liked Spain again. started to see it as an important country for the championship. Spain was in Group B along with Italy, Croatia and Albania. They won all their matches and left the group as the leader. They played very dominant and beautiful football in these 3 matches and did not have any difficulty. With its strong midfield and efficient offensive line, it played the best football in the group stage and Spain got the clearest scores. The effective play of Le Normand and Laporte in the defensive line, Rodri, Olmo and Fabian Ruiz in the midfield, and Williams, Yamal and Morata in the offensive line made the difference.
So much so that Spain did not even concede a goal in the group stage. They conceded the first goal of the tournament against Georgia in the last 16 rounds. As I said, Spain’s dominance and systematic play emerged as a result of the work of coach Luis de la Fuente. The game dominance that Spain is accustomed to, the dominance of possession of the ball more and the dominance of directing the game, came in handy in this tournament. We saw the importance of this especially in the matches between Germany, France and England. Even against a team like England, which played a lot with the ball, Spain did not give up the ball and dominated England. They did the same thing in the matches against France and Germany, and Spain’s success can never be considered a coincidence as they did this very well from the beginning of the tournament. Spain made its mark in this tournament with its positive football approach and the understanding of having more possession of the ball.
Speaking of Spain’s success, we should also mention the inadequacy of France and England in terms of play. France and England, who played weak and ineffective football from the beginning of the tournament, had an extremely disappointing tournament in terms of play. Even though France played in the semi-final and England in the final, their play from the beginning of the tournament did not satisfy anyone. Also the other disappointments of the tournament were Croatia, Belgium and Italy. Especially Croatia had a very bad tournament, considering their successful performances in recent years, and Italy and Belgium could not live up to expectations. In addition, there were surprising teams in the tournament, for example, Romania, which came out as the leader in Group E, and Group D, which was stated to be the most difficult group. Austria, which came out as the leader in Group D. Turkey, which came in second in Group F, and Georgia, which came in 3rd place, were among the surprising teams of the tournament. According to many people, the football played by teams such as Turkey, Georgia, Austria and Romania was more enjoyable and exciting than the favorite teams.
Another factor that left its mark on this tournament was the enthusiasm of the stands. The enthusiasm of the stands made the tournament more beautiful and more watchable. Especially the fans of countries such as the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Romania, Turkey and Spain added color to the tournament. Another reason why the stands were so enthusiastic and colorful was the geopolitical position of Germany, which hosted the tournament. Fans had no problem traveling to Germany, as Germany is located in the most central point of Europe in many respects.
Since Germany is a football country, the fans state that they had a very enjoyable time during the tournament. We can say that Germany provided a good service in terms of stadiums. I think the only wrong decision was that the final match was played in Berlin, not in Munich.. I think the final match should have been played in the Munich stadium, which is a better stadium, and the tournament should have started and ended in Munich. It is possible to say that Germany has gone through a very successful process in terms of hosting, due to the proximity of the cities to each other, advanced transportation facilities and the fact that Germany is generally a football country.
