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Craig HillSpain U21 secure Euro Championship victory
June 26th 2011 20:28
For the 3rd time in their 5 U-21 final appearances, the Spanish have claimed the European Championship title.
In doing so, they confirmed the reason for their being favourite prior to the start of the tournament, and host country Denmark were treated to a fantastic goal from Thiago.
16,000 people watched the final in Aarhus, as Spain secured a confident and commanding victory over a Switzerland side who had not conceded a single goal in the earlier rounds of the tournament.
On 41 minutes, Spain took the lead through an Ander Herrera header from a great Didac cross. The 1-0 scoreline stood until 9 minutes from time, when on 81 minutes, Thiago (son of Brazilian 1994 World Cup winner, Mazinho, scored a wonderful free kick from over 40 yards having spotted the Swiss keeper, Sommer, off his line.
Manchester United fans will have been particularly interested to see how David de Gea, Spain's young stopper, performed. Expected to complete a £17m switch from Atletico Madrid, he made only one save of note on 28 minutes when was he was forced to repel a volley from the dangerous Xherdan Shaqiri.
Despite being held back for much of the second half, Switzerland almost levelled the match on 79 when Timm Klose headed narrowly wide of the target from Shaqiri's free-kick.
In the end, the Swiss effort proved ineffectual as Thiago's effort put the polish on a fine couple of weeks for the young Spanish side.
Adrian claimed the Golden Boot award as the tournament's top goalscorer with 5 strikes to his name. Both Spain and Switzerland will now take part in the Olympic games in London, alongside Belarus who's U-21 side defeated the Czech Republic U-21s earlier in the day in the 3rd/4th placed play off.
Footnote: I am most sorry for the delay in posting information about this fixture! Yesterday was a very hectic day.
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