Talkin Sport - Germany v Spain

If there’s any justice Iker Casillas will lift the Henri Delaunay trophy in Zurich on Sunday night. All observers would surely agree Spain have played the better football until now, and would be worthier winners.

Not that Germany’s performances at Euro 2008 have been without merit. They have, after all, scored three times in both of their knock-out games so far. That’s a decent achievement, even if it was aided by some poor Portuguese marking in the quarter-finals and comical goalkeeping from Rustu Recber at the semi-final stage. Michael Ballack’s commanding performance in the 3-2 win over Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Portuguese was one of the individual highlights of the tournament. And Bastian Schweinsteiger’s transformation into one of the most potent goalscoring midfielders at Euro 2008 after his sending-off against Croatia has been a joy to behold.

But Spain have been, quite simply, a more accomplished outfit. They won all three of their group games, albeit needing injury-time winners to see off Sweden (2-1) and Greece (2-1) after their thumping victory (4-1) over Russia. Their penalty shoot-out victory over Italy was thoroughly deserved, as they outplayed the Azzurri while never reaching their best. Then their 3-0 semi-final victory over Russia included perhaps the most fluent and coherent 45 minutes of football at the finals – the passing, movement and finishing were sublime. It was one of the best displays of midfield play seen in recent years.

The reason why I fancy Spain, however, is the fact they have their feet on the ground. That narrow, quarter-final win over Italy taught the players how to win hard; after that kind of experience, there will be no premature celebrations in the camp. The players, remember, also found it difficult to break down Russia’s defence in the semi-final first-half so their passage to the final has been a perfect mix of struggle and skill.

The other factor that separates Spain from Germany has been the quality of their defence. Casillas has been the best goalkeeper in the competition, while Jens Lehmann is error-prone; Carles Puyol and Carlos Marchena, who is one of the revelations of the tournament, have formed the most impenetrable central defensive barrier in a tournament where few back fours have shone; their Germany counterparts Per Mertesacker and Christoph Metzelder have looked *****bersome, frequently given the ball away and conceded six goals in four games. Only Philipp Lahm looks international class, and while he may have had a shocker of a game defensively against Turkey, he will almost certainly improve here and poses a threat going forward. But Sergio Ramos, of Spain, has been the best full-back in the competition, yet again underlining Spain’s superiority.

Losing David Villa through injury may be a blessing in disguise because it means Luis Aragones avoids what would have been the most difficult decision of his international managerial career: whether to drop one of his two strikers (Fernando Torres being the other) to make room for Cesc Fabregas, who excelled after coming on as a substitute in the semi-final. With Villa ruled out, Fabregas will almost certainly start in a fluid 4-1-4-1 formation, with Xavi, Iniesta and Silva supporting the Arsenal man and Torres while Marcos Senna – arguably the player of the tournament – performs the midfield anchorman duties.

It may take extra-time, it may take penalties, but it’s impossible to oppose a Spain team in the ascendancy against a Germany that has had large slices of luck to get to this stage.