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Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Spain's Standings in EURO 2008




Always among the favourites, they have a nasty habit of producing one decent performance before bowing out to a team half as talented - not a million miles away from the same fate suffered by England every other year. Only Spain will be in Austria and Switzerland this summer and, once again, they are being heavily tipped, with most bookmakers running them as second favourites behind Germany.
So have Spain really underachieved as much as we are led to believe? Spanish football expert Guillem Balague thinks it is nothing more than a myth that they are world football's biggest flops.The fact remains, however, that Spain's seemingly endless problems in major tournaments have become something of an embarrassment for one of football's proudest nations.
Like England, they have won one tournament. Their success - the 1964 European Nations' Cup, as the Euros were called then - came thanks to a 2-1 win over the Soviet Union in the final, which was held in Madrid.

Spain have always had quality players, but perhaps not quite so many as they have in their 23-man squad for Austria and Switzerland, as BBC presenter and former Barcelona striker Gary Lineker testifies."It has slightly let them down in the past, but Spain have never had the strength in depth they have this year," Lineker told BBC Sport. "They also have the experience of players going abroad that they never had before, too."Over in Spain they think they choke. They've done well in sports like golf and motor racing where they've shown they have the bottle.
"But they've got a real chance this year. The spine of Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Cesc Fabregas, Xavi, Fernando Torres and David Villa is very, very strong.

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