Spain deserved Euro 2012 and Euro 2012 deserved Spain

Spain saved the best until last. In the end the tournament turned into a battle of the midfields and in that department this Spanish team is untouchable. Untouchable now and possibly in history.

It was fitting that a tournament of such high quality football should be won by the team that has turned winning into an art and turned their art into wins.

To say it almost feels like repeating the obvious but the strength of the Spanish midfield is just awesome. All four of the sides coming through to the semis had got there by filling the middle of the park with top draw passers, tacklers and dribblers but, in the end, Xavi, Iniesta and co demonstrated once again that they are in a different league.

Ok, you can make a statistical argument that says this Spanish side isn’t as good as the one that won four years ago - I saw a figure suggesting they took just over thirty passes to create a shooting opportunity then, forty-something in 2010 and more than fifty this time round.

But for me that’s just about the forwards. When Torres has been on the pitch, looking to get behind defences, Spain have created opportunities almost at will and not needed to keep turning back and square. My only explanation for del Bosque’s insistence on opting for Fabregas is that he wants to wear out teams before introducing some pace into attack. I think he’s probably done enough to earn the benefit of the doubt on the tactical front.

Surely it’s now time to listen to the fans and make sure that Euro 2012 won’t be remembered as the last great European tournament

Tonight, Italy were quite simply run off the park. They looked tired anyway; they suffered from injuries clearly; Prandelli might be thinking he’d have been better off sticking with the 3-5-2 formation that worked in the first game between these two. In truth, though, it’s hard to see that anything would have made a difference.

And the Azzurri have much to be proud of. After the dark clouds over the national game coming into the tournament they surprised a lot of people and, in Andrea Pirlo had my player of the tournament. I know the choice will be controversial after he was so anonymous in the final but given what he was up against I don’t consider that performance to be a fair reflection of what he did as a whole. The only other individual to have come close in terms of deciding the outcome of games for his team was Zlatan Ibrahimovic but he didn’t chip in a penalty with his team looking to be heading out of a penalty shootout.

The tournament’s had so many highlights but surprisingly few of them have involved goals. My personal favourite memory will be Buffon applauding the Irish fans who did so much to uphold the reputation of the country’s football after the team’s surrenders on the pitch.

And yet, after all that, Uefa still seem dead set on ruining everything by increasing the number of teams to 24, introducing dead rubbers and pointless mismatches and spreading it over 12 cities. Come on, Mr Platini, we’re already established that the fifth official was a stupid idea, surely it’s now time to listen to the fans and make sure that Euro 2012 won’t be remembered as the last great European tournament.