EURO 2008

Spain beat Germany 1-0 to win the Euro 2008 Championship

Spain's EURO 2008 winners received a heroes' welcome from tens of thousands of supporters as they brought the Henri Delaunay trophy back to Madrid on Monday evening.

Luis Aragonés and his triumphant players were cheered by huge crowds lined either side of their open-top bus route from Barajas airport to the Plaza de Colón. Here the party began in earnest, as the squad took to the stage set up for them and delighted the adoring masses by grabbing the microphone, singing and joking. The coach described his side, Spain's first European champions since 1964, as "the best team in the world".

Sunday's 1-0 victors over Germany in Vienna touched down at 19.40CET, with live Spanish television pictures showing captain Iker Casillas mouthing "This is for all of you" as he carried the trophy off a plane emblazoned with the word "Champions". The players then processed in an open-top bus flanked by police and trailed by horn-blowing motorbikes, which crawled along various major roads leading from Barajas to the city centre.

Once on stage at the Plaza de Colón, both captain and coach had a turn on the microphone, before reserve goalkeeper Pepe Reina took over as master of ceremonies, introducing each of his team-mates in a show of euphoria from players and fans alike. Even the normally reserved Aragonés admitted to being overwhelmed. The party ended, officially at least, with cries of "Campeones, campeones", with a rendition of We Are The Champions over the loudspeakers, and with a shower of red and yellow confetti.
 

Looking back at Euro 08:
The football event of a lifetime! On 7 June 2008, EURO 2008 began with the opening European Football Championship match in Basel. It was by far the largest sports event that has ever taken place in Austria and Switzerland. A spectacle of a special kind…

Host countries and cities
There were eight cities - four in Austria and four in Switzerland - which  hosted EURO final-round matches.

Eight Euro 2008 venues
Both countries were to host two groups of the final phase. All the group games took place in stadia which were no more than a maximum of 300 kilometres (180 miles) away from the team's headquarters.

Basel (SUI):
St. Jakob-Park
Berne (SUI):
Stade de Suisse Wankdorf
Geneva (SUI):
Stade de Genève
Innsbruck (AUT):
Stadion Tivoli NEU
Klagenfurt (AUT): Wörthersee Stadion
Salzburg (AUT):
Stadion Salzburg Wals-Siezenheim
Vienna (AUT):
Ernst-Happel-Stadion
Zurich (SUI):
Letzigrund Stadion

How did it end in 2004?

Greece - European Football Champions 2004
Greece completed one of the biggest upsets in international football history by beating Portugal 1-0 in Lisbon to win Euro 2004 on 4th July 2004.
Striker Angelos Charisteas, the man with the golden boots, headed home the 57th-minute winner as the nation of the 'golden generation' suffered extreme pain as their team froze on the big stage.

The Euro 2004 final tournament, the 12th of its kind, broke all records: 7.9 billion TV viewers in total, and more than 150 million live viewers for each of the 31 matches. The final was seen by as many as 279 million viewers – an unbelievable increase of 157 per cent on corresponding figures for Euro 2000!

In terms of TV figures, UEFA European Football Championship is the world’s second major sports event, only topped by the FIFA World Cup. Here are a few figures by way of a comparison:

• In England, 12.4 million viewers saw English athlete Kelly Holmes win the gold medal in the Olympic 1,500 metres in Athens, while the UEFA EURO 2004™ quarter-final between England and Portugal was watched by 21 million viewers.
• In Germany, 13.2 million viewers watched the Olympic Games opening ceremony, and the UEFA EURO 2004™ final between Portugal and Greece was seen by an astonishing 24.7 million people.
• TV records were also broken in Switzerland in 2004. The ten highest viewing figures were all recorded for UEFA European Football Championship matches.

Top world event
The UEFA European Football Championship has grown into a top world event: The TV images from Europe were watched by 446 million viewers in America, 986 million viewers in Africa and as many as 1.1 billion viewers in Asia.