Spain enter Finals

The underachievers achieve in big time

The way Spain is performing, the absence of its leading scorer is no big worry.

Having watched his team score three second-half goals with David Villa sidelined by a leg injury, and beat Russia 3-0 in the semifinals Thursday night, coach Luis Aragones is confident. Especially after substitute Cesc Fabregas set up two of the goals, sending the Spaniards into Sunday’s final against Germany.

Fabregas came on when Villa, who leads Euro 2008 with four goals, was injured taking a first-half free kick. Fabregas flicked a ball over the top of the defense for Dani Guiza to score with the outside of his right foot high into the net in the 73rd minute.

Fabregas then slid a pass through for an unmarked David Silva to score from inside the box in the 82nd and complete the rout.

“Villa will miss the final,” Aragones said. “It’s not serious, but he’ll miss the final because he has a pull.”

Fabregas certainly has been an able replacement and key contributor as Spain, often an underachiever, made its first major tournament final in 24 years.

“I know how well he can perform,” Aragones said of Fabregas. “I like a player like Cesc, 20 years old and someone who has acquired the experience of someone who’s 27, 28. To us, he’s important.

“We were doing well with one forward. It’s better for numbers in midfield, for pressing, and that’s how you get Xavi (Hernandez) scoring. Make them feel free.”

Xavi scored the first goal in the 50th minute after an exchange of passes with Andres Iniesta, who eluded one defender before crossing the ball into the box for Xavi to side-foot it past goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev’s legs.

Spain, which won the 1964 European tournament and lost to France in the ‘84 final, ended its run of five quarterfinal defeats by beating Italy in a penalty shootout Sunday. It confirmed its title aspirations with its penetrative passing on a slick surface in the pouring rain against Russia.

“The team has been strong mentally for a long time,” Aragones said. “It’s important to not only play good football, you need to know how to compete. That’s what we wanted, to be in the final. But there’s an adversary called Germany, that is going to be interesting.”

The Spaniards and Germans have not played a competitive match since a 1-1 draw in the 1994 World Cup. Overall, Germany has won eight of 19 meetings, with Spain taking five and six draws. In competitive games, it is 4-1-2 for Germany.

Germany beat Turkey 3-2 on Wednesday night and is seeking a record fourth Euro title.

“This team is already making history, but we can do even more,” striker Fernando Torres said. “We’re proud of reaching the final, and against Germany on top of it all, which is a great rival.”

Russia coach Guus Hiddink still has never taken a team past the semifinals of a major, falling at that stage when leading his native Netherlands at the 1998 World Cup and with South Korea four years later.

“It was their plan that they were going to make us tired so we couldn’t make a (good effort) of it in the second half,” Hiddink said. “However, we can be proud of reaching where we did and of coming third. We faced really strong opposition tonight and they deserved to win.”

Spain, which beat the Soviet Union 2-1 in the 1964 final in Madrid, has not lost to Russia in five matches, including a 4-1 win two weeks ago in the first round.

“The team pushed on and I think we dominated the match,” Iniesta said.

Germany coach Joachim Loew was asked if Spain compared with Portugal, which the Germans beat in the quarterfinals.



“Spain is a lot better than Portugal. It is a lot more flexible and not so predictable,” Loew said. “They keep the ball well in their own rows and it’s very hard to intercept. The Spain team shows great ease and it’s very economical.”

The Spaniards didn’t seem distracted by reports that Aragones was set to join Turkish club Fenerbahce as coach after Euro 2008. They were precise with the ball and staunch on defense all through the game.

“I think in the second half Russia tired a bit and we were able to take advantage of that,” Torres said.

Russia never got its speedy, creative attack on track.

“Our team was physically weaker than Spain. When you don’t have the physical strength, it is tough to get through, you have to rely on tactics,” playmaker Andrei Arshavin said. “Today, Spain was more technically skilled than us.”