Spanish Soccer Team Uefa Euro 2012

On Sunday 1st July, the Spanish national football team became the UEFA European Champions for the third time in their legacy.

The 4-0 victory over the Italian side also marked the third championship win in a streak which began with the Spanish team’s success at the Austria-Switzerland UEFA Euro 2008 and was closely followed by their triumphant victory at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
During June of 1964, storming through without defeat, the Spanish hosted, entered, and won their first ever UEFA European Nations' Cup. But, perhaps taking a bit too long to return to sobriety following the celebration of their success, the Spanish team failed to qualify for 4 tournaments between Euro1968 and Euro 2004 and only ever progressed past the knock-out stage of the cup a meagre total of 3 times.

The hype conjured up by the Spanish media in the run up to this year's competition has been truly (and just about justifiably) hysteric – so much so that had Spain lost on Sunday, the population of the country would almost certainly still be in a state of absolute despair. The slogan, “no hay dos sin tres,” alluding to Spain's former triumphs, must have put the team's Salamancan Seleccionador, Vicente del Bosque, under a terrific amount of pressure. Fortunately, Spain's victory over Italy was something of a massacre with two goals per half of the game, and when the match ended on Sunday evening, crowded bars all over the country burst into the streets in a typically Spanish and exuberant manner.

On Monday the King Juan Carlos I was the first to welcome back the country's new heroes before they entered the swarming crowds of Madrid on an open-top bus. Rajoy, however, was not distracted from the pressing matters of the continuing crisis, and, unlike former Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero, was absent at the welcoming back of the once-again champions.