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Posts Tagged ‘Iker Casillas’

“La Roja” has rewritten its own history, after beating Italy 4-0 and winning, the second time in a row, the Euro Championship.  Spain is now the only National Team in the world that has won three major international titles successively: Euro 2009, World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012.

Spain didn´t let down its fans. Right from the start Spain started to attack with a very clear goal: be first one to score. And they did it playing both beautifully and efficiently: 4 goals by David Silva, Jordi Alba, Fernando Torres and Juan Mata gave the Championships to Del Bosque´s team.

Cesc turned out to play again as a “false” 9, a position he feels really comfortable at. He accomplished great results for Spain while driving the Italians crazy. The first leg of the match showed us a very suffocating Italian defense that only the imagination and skillfulness of Iniesta were able to break.

All four goals have a unique story, but Jordi Alba´s one after a masterful pass by Xavi Hernández, is worth mentioning because the young player was able to beat face to face one of the greatest goalkeepers of the world: the legendary Buffon.

Fernando Torres, the current Chelsea player, who has had lots of up and downs this season, was able to score his third goal of the championship, winning the Golden Boot award for top scorer at Euro 2012. Iniesta, on the other hand, won the top player of Euro 2012 for his overall performance in the tournament.

Finally, we end up this post talking about Spain´s defense. After an injury kept Puyol out of the Euro 2012, everybody thought that this side of the team was going to be a concern. Truth being told, Piqué, Ramos and Arbeola have held the fort together, along with Iker Casillas, so much so that Spain ended up winning Euro 2012 conceding just one goal.

Congratulations Champions!

Since Spain broke its string of bad luck in quarter-finals, it is unstoppable. Euro 2008, the World Cup 2010 and now is about to win its second Euro title. If it wins, Spain will become the first National Team achieving three Championships in a row.

The match against Portugal wasn´t an easy one, though. 90 minutes of regular time, then 30 more minutes of extra time, and the scoreboard remained 0. Spain ended up beating Portugal in the penalty shoot-outs. But it did not start with the right foot, because Xabi Alonso missed the first penalty kick. Lucky for Spain, Iker Casillas made a great save preventing Moutinho from scoring.

But the decisive kick came from Cesc Fàbregas. He asked to kick the fifth one, because he got the feeling that it was going to be the decisive one. And he was certainly right! He did not miss it, giving Spain the opportunity to go to finals, and preventing Cristiano Ronaldo from even try to kick.

The final will take place next Sunday July 1^st in Kiev, but we still don´t know who will Spain play against: Italy or Germany?

Things did not look good for Real Madrid fans when Mourinho announced his final line-up to take over FC Barcelona in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarter finals. The list included Carvalho and Altintop .

But, still, in the 11th minute, thanks to a great assist from Karim Benzema, and the always appreciated help from Pinto (Barça´s eternal question-mark goalkeeper in the Copa del Rey competition), Cristiano Ronaldo scored and for a moment it looked like the conservative tactic planned by Mourinho was going to be successful.

Time only proved that Ronaldo´s goal was just good luck, and when Barcelona started to play the way they always do, Madrid started to shake.

Let´s just say that Barcelona did not crushed Real Madrid thanks to Iker Casillas and the posts. Instead, Barcelona scored in a very unusual way that only emphasizes that the whole team was really connected and concentrated on the work at hand. In the 49th minute Puyol shoot a powerful header after a corner kick. This goal, this way, really took Madrid players by surprise. So did the one by Abidal, who scored the coolest goal in the 77th minute after a wonderful play and assist by Messi.

And the Argentinean was, unintentionally so, one of the main characters in the bad play starring the overly aggressive Madrid defender Pepe, who showed us once again that something terrible in going on in his brain. The Portuguese stepped on Messi´s hand voluntarily, when the Argentinean was getting on his feet after falling down. Still, he saw no red card.

What did Mourinho said after the match? “I haven’t seen it, but obviously if it is deliberate he will be punished,”

And Pep Guardiola… well, he was extremely happy, politely saying that he did not see the aggression thanking instead all the players for their wonderful job and even taking the time to single out Alexis: “I want to especially thank Alexis [Sanchez],” He has played a fantastic game. He has stolen my heart”.

This result leaves Barcelona a comfortable leeway to prepare for second leg taking place next Wednesday at Camp Nou.