GERMANY
Lehmann: 8 – The single reason why the winning margin was not much greater. Superb save to prevent Metzelder from turning the ball into his own net, and made a number of other stops. Could do nothing on Torres’ goal.
Friedrich: 4 – Germany have had some brilliant full backs over the years - Paul Breitner, Berti Vogts, Hans-Peter Briegel, Andreas Brehme – the list goes on and on. To mention Friedrich among any of these names would be blasphemy.
Mertesacker: 4 – Germany have also had a plethora of world class centre backs – Franz Beckenbauer, Jurgen Kohler and Matthias Sammer to name just a few – Herr Mertesacker is not one of these. At fault when Torres hit the post, and terrorised all night by the Liverpool man.
Metzelder: 5 – Also struggled, as he has during the whole tournament. Not even that overgrown beard can disguise his deficiencies. Part of the worst German defence since the 1940s.
Lahm: 5 – The fourth and final member of the Marx Brothers. Bright going forward, but again struggled badly defensively, and he allowed Torres to get round the back of him for the goal. Substituted at half time.
Schweinsteiger: 6.5 – One of Germany’s best players, full of energy and running. Made some intelligent runs into the box, although his set pieces were very poor.
Frings: 6 – Started the game authoritatively but could not gain a foothold thereafter, and seemed to tire in the second half.
Hitzlsperger: 5 – An honest player, but he quite clearly lacks the quality at this level of football. Outclassed by the Spanish midfielders, and replaced on 57 minutes.
Podolski: 5.5 – Tried hard but never really got into the game. Has had an excellent tournament but tonight it just didn’t happen for him. Must be credited for his fair play when Silva put his head into his face.
Ballack: 6 – Was a doubt for the game, and never really looked fully fit. Went closest to finding a German goal when he shot just wide in the second half.
Klose: 6 – Excellent in the first 15 minutes, and could have scored early on, however he contributed little thereafter as Spain completely dominated.
Substitutes
Jansen: 5 – Came on at half time for Lahm but did no better than his Bayern team-mate. Comically played Sergio Ramos onside when Lehmann pulled off a fine save at 0-1.
Kuranyi: 5.5 – Brought on to add some extra firepower to the attack, but caused no problems to the Spanish defence at all.
Gomez: 5.5 – Similar assessment to Kuranyi. The story of Gomez’s tournament.
SPAIN
Casillas - 7 Unflappable all night, dealing with everything that came his way. Did particularly well on crosses. Having said this, he did not have a save of note to make.
Sergio Ramos - 6.5 Started nervously, and made a horrendous error that could have gifted an early goal to Klose. However he improved greatly as the game wore on and perhaps should have scored to make it 2-0.
Marchena - 7 Was believed to be the Spanish weak link coming into Euro 2008 but in truth he has had a good tournament, and he did well again tonight.
Puyol - 6.5 Showed all of his leadership qualities once again, but not as impressive as he was against Italy and Russia, and made a couple of defensive errors.
Capdevila - 6 Caused some problems by Schweinsteiger during the first 20 minutes of the second half, but apart from this he had a generally sound game.
Iniesta – 8 Perhaps his best performance at the Euros. Caused the Germans problems all night with his jinking runs, and intelligent reverse passes. Outstanding.
Senna - 9 The exact player that Spain have been missing in recent years. Has carried out such a vital role in front of the back four all tournament and it was the same tonight. Tactically perfect. Player of the tournament?
Xavi - 9 Displayed all of his classy playmaking skills and ran the show in the middle of the park. The difference in technical quality between Xavi and the German midfielders was huge.
Silva – 7.5 Has been one of the best young players at the Euros, and once again displayed all of his raw talent tonight. Switched from right to left and caused both German full backs all sorts of problems. Could have been red carded though after his altercation with Podolski.
Fabregas - 6 Contributed to the team effort but it never really happened for Fabregas tonight. Was overshadowed by his midfield peers.
Torres - 8 Led the line on his own superbly, and caused the shambolic German defence all kinds of headaches. Hit the post with a header, before scoring the goal that won Spain their first major trophy in 44 years.
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