The Beginning Of A Golden Era, The 2006 World Cup And Euro 2008

Spain qualified for the 2006 World Cup after a play-off against Slovakia when they finished behind Serbia and Montenegro in Group 7, which also included Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Lithuania and San Marino. In group H of the host of the final German, Spain won all their matches, beating the Ukraine 4-0, 3-1 and Tunisia 1-0 Saudi Arabia. But Spain fell 3-1 in the second round of France, where only the consolation of a hand with Brazil in 2006 the Prize of the FIFA Fair Play.

After being eliminated from the competition, Luis Aragones came to the decision that the team was not physical or robust enough to be able to muscle their opponents, who chose to start focusing on hog the ball and began to use the tiki -taka - a style characterized by short passing and movement, working the ball through different channels, and maintain possession. Rafael Honigstein he describes as "a significant improvement of the Dutch" total football ", a system based on the players change positions." Tiki-taka style of play comes with age as a director Johan Cruyff's Barcelona, ​​from 1988 to 1996 [10].

Spain qualified for Euro 2008 top of qualifying Group F with 28 points out of possible 36, and was seeded 12th in the final. They won all their matches in Group D against Russia 4-1 and 2-1 against Sweden and defending champion Greece.

Headlines reigning World Cup in Italy were the rivals in the quarter-final between Spain and ended in a 0-0 result in the penalty shootout which Spain won four -2. Spain met again in Russia in the semifinals, defeated again, this time by 3-0 [11].

In the final, played in Vienna Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Spain defeated 1-0 with a goal from Fernando Torres on 33 minutes Germany. [12] This was the first major title in Spain since the 1964 European Championship. Spain was the highest scoring team with 12 goals, and David Villa top scorer with four goals. Xavi was awarded the best player, and nine Spanish players were chosen for the UEFA EURO 2008 Team of the Tournament [13]