Iniesta named player of the tournament

Meh, would've gone for Pirlo myself.

I think the final will have swung it. I think he was Spain's best player, but I thought Pirlo was better as well to be honest. Iniesta played well but was a victim of his own brilliance because we've seen him play so much better.

milner's been thieved

Iniesta is one of my all-time favourites. Not sure if he deserves to be the man of the tournament. But then, he is such an unselfish and unassuming player that I might have missed some of his contributions.

Alba would have been my choice for this tournament.

Here's the full list from UEFA:

Euro 2012 team of the tournament: Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Ita), Iker Casillas (Spa), Manuel Neuer (Ger)

Defenders: Gerard Pique (Spa), Fabio Coentrao (Por), Philipp Lahm (Ger), Pepe (Por), Sergio Ramos (Spa), Jordi Alba (Spa)

Midfielders: Daniele De Rossi (Ita), Steven Gerrard (Eng), Xavi (Spa), Andres Iniesta (Spa), Sami Khedira (Ger), Sergio Busquets (Spa), Mesut Ozil (Ger), Andrea Pirlo (Ita), Xabi Alonso (Spa)

Forwards: Mario Balotelli (Ita), Cesc Fabregas (Spa), Cristiano Ronaldo (Por), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Swe), David Silva (Spa)

Should have been Pirlo.

Pirlo hardly got a kick in the final, and for all his excellence against England, Italy failed to score in 120 minutes. He was good, but not a definite for player of the tournament.

For me, Iniesta is really the key to Spain - Xavi may be the guy that the ball goes to most, but the moments of incisive passing more often come from Iniesta. First goal in the final came from a superb ball through to Fabregas, and he'd already released Alba down the left (pity the lack of forwards in the box to challenge for the cross that came in). Fantastic player, and I wish we had one like him.

Pirlo played well in every match except Spain, he should be the player of the tornument

England made Pirlo look 10 x better than he is. I'm not saying he's not brilliant but everybody went over the top after the England game, where he was hardly challenged all game.

Actually Pirlo was just as good vs Germany and throughout the group stage

Graeme Swann's Cat wrote:Actually Pirlo was just as good vs Germany and throughout the group stage

Not really.

Yes really.

no, not really

Yes, yes really

I agree with GCS, against Spain in the first game Pirlo looked better than both Xavi and Iniesta, and again he was excellent against Germany. Pirlo is so good at finding space, pundits try to act as if it's a simple matter of just closing him down but he just finds the space every time. Even against Spain he got into space so many times, the ball just didn't get to him.

But England didn't even put him under pressure. Different argument, so no more from me.

To be fair, he did give the ball away on a couple of occasions in the final through Spain's pressure. if Pirlo had been named the POT then I wouldn't have argued to much.

Crimey means the first game I think, when Pirlo ran the show

Pirlo was very good against Spain, great against Croatia. Keith Andrews dominated him when they played Ireland though. I would have given it to him but I'm not surprised they gave it to Iniesta.

Thomond wrote:Pirlo was ver good against Italy

Soldier_Of_Fortune wrote:

Thomond wrote:Pirlo was ver good against Italy

Edited He was probably good against his Italian team mates in training though

In the final, de Rossi and Marchisio could not press enough to create space for Andrea Pirlo. Pirlo could not quite execute his long diagonals. Fabregas and David Silva managed to read Pirlo fully. Alba and Arbeloa charged forward without resistance. Not just Pirlo, it was a collective failure of Pirlo, de Rossi and Marchisio to negotiate the speed and guile of the Spanish midfield. Xavi and Iniesta had total domination. The pair did this in the WC final too. It's their ability to rise to the big occasion is what makes them special.

I wouldn't call it a failure, Spain are just so difficult to play against. Italy held their own for most of the first half and I thought they were unlucky to be 2-0 down. Second half they just ran out of steam. They managed 53% of of possession in the first half an hour, the first time a team managed that against Spain all tournament so Italy did well for a bit.