Spain's victory marked the start of a period of dominance for the team, which saw them go on to lift the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, before then retaining their European title at Euro 2012.

[2][3] Qualifying rounds were held between August 2006 and November 2007, in which fifty teams were divided into seven groups of seven or eight, playing each other on a home-and-away round-robin tournament basis.

[2] In the previous international tournament, the 2006 FIFA World Cup, they were knocked out in the semi-final to Italy, before winning the third-place play-off against Portugal.

[13] Germany concluded their group fixtures against co-hosts Austria in Vienna on 16 June needing a draw to secure their progress to the quarter-finals, while their opponents required a win.

Roman Pavlyuchenko scored for Russia 4 minutes from full time, before Spain added another goal through substitute Cesc Fàbregas to complete a 4–1 victory.

[20] Manager Aragonés therefore decided to rest most of his first-team players for the final game against Greece in Salzburg, Austria, on 18 June.

Marcos Senna then had two chances to give Spain the lead, respectively through a long-range free kick and a shot fumbled onto the post by Gianluigi Buffon.

The first half, played in rainy conditions, ended goalless with Torres being denied by Russia's goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev and Pavlyuchenko shooting wide from a Konstantin Zyryanov cross.

[28] Many Spanish supporters had been pessimistic about the team's chances before the tournament, as a result of their previous lack of success, but according to Steve Kingstone of BBC News, the mood in the country was much more optimistic about their prospects in the final, following the semi-final victory over Russia.

[30] The assistant referees were Alessandro Griselli and Paolo Calcagno, also of Italy, while Sweden's Peter Fröjdfeldt was the fourth official.

[31][32] The tournament's closing ceremony took place before the final, featuring music by Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias, after which the national anthems of the two teams were played.

[33] Chris Waddle, working as an analyst for BBC Radio 5 Live, commented that he had "never seen Spain play so many long balls.

[33] Despite having had no meaningful attacks until that point, Spain almost took the lead on 14 minutes when Xavi found Iniesta inside the German penalty area.

Iniesta fired a curling shot intended for the top-right corner of the German goal, which was intercepted by Christoph Metzelder.

[35] Germany appealed for a penalty for handball on 25 minutes, when Ramos blocked a Ballack shot, but the referee deemed that it had hit his chest.

[36][37] BBC Sport's Caroline Cheese credited Torres with "a real striker's instinct" in scoring the goal, with what she had thought had been "a half-chance, if that".

[35] They almost doubled their lead two minutes later, when Iniesta crossed the ball to Silva in the German penalty area who had time and space to line up a shot.

Germany continued attacking, first through Ballack, whose cross for Kurányi was intercepted by Casillas, and then through Schweinsteiger, who fired a powerful shot which deflected wide off his team-mate Klose.

Iniesta's shot from the resulting corner, hit from the edge of the German penalty area, was cleared off the goal-line by Torsten Frings with his knees.

Replays showed that the ball had hit Lehmann's arm in front of his chest, but Murray said that "it would have been a very harsh call" if the referee had penalised him.

[33][35] Germany had one more chance, with the ball bouncing uncontrolled in the Spanish penalty area, but it ended when the referee penalised them for a foul.

[35] Man of the Match: Fernando Torres (Spain)[38] Assistant referees:[31][32] Alessandro Griselli (Italy) Paolo Calcagno (Italy) Fourth official: Peter Fröjdfeldt (Sweden) Reserve assistant referee: Stefan Wittberg (Sweden) Match rules[39] After the trophy presentation and during Schweinsteiger's interview, the Spain team performed a conga line back and forward behind him in the mixed zone [de].

[41] He described himself as "full of emotion" after the game, and he praised his players: "We have put together a group that plays well, that keeps the ball and mixes their passes very well and that is difficult to stop.

He expressed satisfaction with Germany's performances and optimism for the future, saying "this defeat is going to be an incentive to work hard over the next two years in a number of areas and to improve".

[42] Xavi attributed the win to Aragonés, saying that he "took a gamble on the little guys; putting players like Iniesta, Cazorla, Fàbregas, Silva and Villa in the team.

[43] Analysts attributed their success in part to a style of play called tiki-taka, which had been introduced by Aragonés and was continued by Del Bosque.

[46] The tiki-taka style was also adopted by Pep Guardiola with Spanish club Barcelona, who achieved success in domestic and European competition in the same period.

Citing their "ultimate combination of silk and steel", with the "Barcelona 'carousel' of Xavi and Andres Iniesta augmented by Real Madrid's Xabi Alonso in midfield", McNulty opined that "it would have to be a very powerful argument against Spain" being the greatest.

[43] Author Jonathan O'Brien opined that the victory marked "Spain's spectacular metamorphosis from underachieving weaklings to the best team in Europe.

[47] Germany reached the semi-finals of the 2010 and 2012 tournaments under Löw, before eventually being successful with a win at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.