The three Barça players have become European champions after Spain beat Germany 1-0 to win their first title since 1964. Xavi, Iniesta and Puyol were key players in the final and throughout the competition.
The final of the 13th European Championship between Germany and Spain kicked off at 8.45 pm on Sunday with Iniesta, Puyol and Xavi in Luis Aragonés’s starting XI.
Right from when Roberto Rosetti got the game underway both sides were looking to get forward, though Germany had the best of the play in the first 15 minutes with Casillas being forced to make fine save from Schweinsteiger.
Spain strikes
Then Spain started to get more into the game with Torres hitting the post, Capdevila having a shot and a drive from Cesc which tested the German’s goalkeeper, Lehman. Then in the 32nd minute Torres made it 1-0 to Spain, latching onto a superb pass from Xavi into space and using strength, speed and skill to get past Lahm and chip the ball over Lehman into the German goal.
Casillas tested
Spain began the second half with a wave of attacks which the Germans did well to repel. Then they went on the offensive themselves with half an hour left, and both Ballack and Kuranyi tested Iker Casillas.
Xavi and Iniesta crucial
Even though the Germans were pushing forward, the Spanish continued to create chances with Xavi and Iniesta playing a key role. Xavi took a superb free-kick which Ramos was about to put away when Lehman intervened, while Iniesta had fine chance to make it 2-0 only for the German keeper to save again.
Xavi, Iniesta and Puyol win Euro 2008
Neither side was prepared to sit back and accept the result, with the Germans desperately trying to equalise and Spain seeking the goal that would put them virtually out of sight. In spite of the efforts of the Germans, Spain created lots of chances playing excellent football and Joachim Low’s men were unable to get the goal they needed. After 90 intense minutes of attacking football, Spain won the European Championship for the first time in 44 years, marking the end of a tournament in which Iniesta, Xavi and Puyol have given fine performances.
The Best stadium in the World - Camp Nou
By Norman Foster will be the latest in a long list of emblematic buildings that make up Barcelona’s modern skyline, and will be an icon of the city itself and of the modernity and traditions of Catalonia.
Barcelona, the city of progress, design and architecture will soon extend this vision to the district of Les Corts in the form of the British architect’s new design for the football stadium. The new Camp Nou will reflect the past, present and future of Barcelona, Catalonia and modernity’s architectural identity.
Three sources of inspiration
In the words of Norman Foster himself on the day that the model of Barça’s new home was presented, three main elements inspired his restructuring project: the club’s history, the stadium itself and the link between Barcelona, its city and its country. Taken together, this inspiration is manifested in the form a Gaudi-esque mosaic on the façade and roof that will offer dramatic effects at night and pleasant, bright colours by day.
Local influence
Foster’s intention was for the new Camp Nou to be an icon, and at the same time a tribute to Catalan architecture in the form of an allegory to Barcelona and Catalonia. Foster’s inspirations are a synthesis of different traditional and modern influences taken from constructions that already exist in the city, and that help ensure that the Camp Nou will remain an essential part of any sightseeing tour of the city of Barcelona.
In this sense, the international recognition acquired by Barcelona as a result of the Olympic Games in 1992 is particularly worthy of mention. Since the city was announced as the host, Barcelona pulled out all the stops to seduce the world. It has been mainly since then that Barcelona, through such buildings as the Torre de Collserola and the Torre Agbar, among many others, has transformed as it continues to hold major events. The city and its main thoroughfares have been transformed as a result of these events, although its icons are not the cause of this transformation, but rather the consequence.
Barcelona has consistently been a burghal that lives and breathes sport. Today, and acknowledgment in ample allotment to the captivation of the Olympic Games, a division of the city’s citizenry now consistently do some blazon of action and accept included concrete exercise in their accepted activities. The bodies of Barcelona accept bedeviled the city’s accessible spaces, squares, parks and new beaches and angry them into focal credibility of sports activities. And we charge abide to beforehand in this direction. The Burghal Council promotes and stimulates action at all levels - from abecedarian to professional, from academy to retirement, from ‘fun runs’ to summer activities - architecture and remodelling facilities, accouterment districts and educational centres. Facilitating admission for anybody to a convalescent affairs through concrete exercise. Consolidating Barcelona’s all-embracing role as a burghal of Sport.
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Location: Montjuïc
Address: Passeig Olímpic 17-19, Barcelona, Vizcaya, Spain
Phone: 93/426-2089
The Olympic Amphitheater was originally congenital for the Great Exhibition of 1929, with the abstraction that Barcelona would again host the 1936 Olympics (ultimately staged in Hitler’s Berlin). After declining alert to win the nomination, Barcelona acclaimed the accomplishment of its long-cherished ambition by renovating the semiderelict amphitheater in time for 1992, accouterment basement for 70,000. Next aperture and aloof decline stands the affected Palau Sant Jordi Sports Palace, advised by the Japanese artist Arata Isozaki. The anatomy has no pillars or beams to arrest the view, and was congenital from the roof bottomward - the roof was congenital first, again hydraulically aerial into place. Weekdays 10-2 and 4-7, weekends 10-6.
Estadi Olimpic
