Spain defeated Russia by a score of 3-0 on Thursday in the Soccer Betting Euro 2008 semifinals and now will face Germany for the title on Sunday. Spain scored three times in the second half to defeat Russia for the second time in the European Championship. Spain had defeated the Russians 3-1 in group play.
Xavi Hernandez, Dani Guiza and David Silva had the goals for Spain in the second half. Spain has not won the European title since 1964. They played a superb second half against Russia and should provide a stern test for Germany in the final. "It was difficult, especially the first half. I think it was an extraordinary second half," Spain coach Luis Aragones said. "That's what we wanted, to be in the final. But there's an adversary called Germany that is going to be interesting." Spain will have to play on Sunday without striker David Villa who was hurt in the first half. "Villa will miss the final," said Aragones, "It's not serious, but he'll miss the final because he has a pull."
Spain really dominated Russia in the second half of Thursday’s semifinal. Xavi scored in the 50th minute as he took a pass from Andres Iniesta and put a shot past goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev. Guiza scored the second goal in the 73rd minute with help from Cesc Fabregas. It was Fabregas again that helped on the final goal as Silva scored in the 82nd minute. "The team pushed on and I think we dominated the match. I'm very happy about being in the final," said Iniesta, "It's a match that we want to win."
Soccer Betting at SBG Global. Russia just ran out of gas in the second half. "It was their plan that they were going to make us tired so we couldn't make a fist of it in the second half," Russia coach Guus Hiddink said. "However, we can be proud of reaching where we did and of coming third. We faced really strong opposition tonight and they deserved to win." Russia was not able to get much offense going and playmaker Andrei Arshavin was totally held in check. “Our team was physically weaker than Spain. When you don't have the physical strength, it is tough to get through, you have to rely on tactics," Arshavin said. "Today, Spain was more technically skilled than us." Spain totally dominated Russia in the second half and it easily could have been worse than the 3-0 final. Fernando Torres had a couple of chances that he missed.
Spain will now face Germany in the Euro 2008 final. ABC will televise the match beginning at 2:45 pm Eastern time on Sunday.
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