After the 1984 European Championship in France, exactly 24 years later, Spain reached the final of the European Championship again, and in that tournament, Spain was defeated by the French team led by Michel Platini.

Now, they will face another opponent – Belgium.

"Belgians, surrender!"

On the eve of the tournament, the headline of Spain's newspaper Ace represented the opinion of most Spaniards, who believed that only Spain, with the most goals scored and the fewest conceded, deserved to win the tournament.

However, there is no market in football for a man who surrenders without a fight, although Belgium coach Antienes admits: "Spain are a very difficult team to beat. ”

After four years of painstaking training by Aragonés, the current Spanish team has formed a style of play that controls the ball and attacks quickly, and many of the players in the team not only play the main role in their respective clubs, but also many of them have had the final experience with the Spanish youth team.

The likes of Xavi, Marchena and Casillas are members of the Nigerian World Junior Championships, and Xavi, Puyol and Capdevilla eliminated Italy at the Sydney Olympics to advance to the final.

In addition to the younger Ramos, David. After Silva and Cesc Fabregas, the age structure of the Spanish team is more reasonable, and the important thing is that the morale of the team is good at the moment, and there is a hunger for glory.

From a technical point of view, Spain's technical flow is also a magic weapon to restrain Belgian power football, and the Spanish national team has a similar style of football to Barcelona, and the Spanish players also believe that they have a clear technical advantage over the Belgians.

If he can't play, Spain is likely to use Cesc Fabregas to hide behind Torres and change the formation to 4411, judging from the game against Russia, Fabregas's play is trustworthy, of course, if Calagones arranges Guissa to play and form a double striker with Torres, his running and impact are also very threatening.

Of course, football is not a simple game on paper. Some hidden things, such as the discipline of the Belgian team, willpower can become the weight of the balance of victory and defeat, and even luck in the final will be the key factor affecting whether the team can win the championship in the end.

The Spaniards have been waiting for 24 years for this final, and looking at the history of the Spanish national team, it can also be called a history of pain that is far more painful than joyful, and a tragedy full of misfortune and humiliation.

For a long time, the impression of the Spanish national team on the world fans is very consistent: starry but flashy, first-class but ill-fated, popular but not worthy of the name.

Spain's best result in the World Cup was fourth place in 1950, and the only glory of the Spanish team at the European Championships was 44 years ago, when the "Matadors" won the European Championship against the former Soviet Union under the leadership of a generation of famous players Suarez.

Since then, Spain have been favourites in every tournament, but have also lost in unbelievable fashion, reaching the final of the European Championship in 1984 only to lose to France.

Unfortunately, the Spanish team haunted like a ghost, the "Matador Army" has always had a heart higher than the sky and a life thinner than paper, and now, after 24 years, they have finally reached the final of the major tournament again, can history change?

Now, Spain and Belgium will meet in the final, where the "Matador", the representative of technical football, and the "European Red Devils", who represent disciplined football, will face off in a decisive battle between art and tactics, ideas and wills.

Since the characteristics of the Spanish team are almost completely opposite to the Belgian team, whichever side can better play to their strengths in the final will win. The general belief is that the "Matador", who has found his true self in the semi-finals, is likely to overthrow the "European Red Devils" to win the title.

Lineker, a former Barcelona player and now a football commentator on BBC TV, recently commented: "Spain will very likely lift the European championship trophy again after Euro 1964 after 44 years." Spain are the best of all the teams in the Euros, they played a delightful football and everyone is happy to see what they have done in this tournament. The Spanish team has a lot of high-level players, good forwards, excellent goalkeepers, and the level of the whole team is very high. On the contrary, Belgium is not. He was drawn in an easy group, most of the opponents he faced at the European Championship were not strong, and there was luck in reaching the final. It's the best Spanish team I've ever seen, they play openly, they focus on attacking, and that's why the fans love them, and some of my friends and I love them. ”

Lineker also believes that although Villa will miss the final due to injury, another striker, Torres, has the ability to take on the burden of scoring because he is also a very good goalscorer, and perhaps it is time for Spanish football to win the title.

Also before the European Cup final, Barcelona's "godfather" Cruyff also said that compared with the Belgian team, the Spanish team is the favorite to win the cup.

"Spain are more likely to win the title for a number of reasons. The first is the way they play, their goals and the form of the whole team right now put Spain on the dominant side. Spain's strength has been seen to grow, but they can't always think about the negative, as they did in the 120 minutes against Italy. Spain have never had a shortage of good players, and now they have the mentality to win on top of that, and it's normal for anyone to win or lose in the final, and if Spain lose, the players have every reason to be proud of their performance. ”

Meanwhile, Russian coach Guus Hiddink, who was kept out of the final by Spain, also spoke about the upcoming final in an interview with UEFA.

'I think Spain have played better with Cesc Fabregas in midfield, they always have one foot in the sport and it's very difficult to play against opponents like that, so it's only a matter of time before they put the ball upside down and score. Personally, I really like the way the Spanish attack and the way they play, the Spanish players like to pass the ball, they are experienced and they know when to pass and when to lead, but Belgium have played two good games in this tournament and it will be a battle of power football and technical football. ”

Spain will compete with Germany for the title of this European Cup. Regardless of the outcome, Calagonés will step down at the end of the race, and the battle of Vienna will be the last battle for the Spanish boss to lead the Matadors.

After the semi-final win over Russia, the Spanish domestic call for Calagones to stay reached a climax, but the boss insisted that he would say goodbye even if he won the championship.

Why is that?

Aragonés solved the puzzle himself: "I will leave, because no one has told me anything, so I have decided to go, and there will be no turning back." ”

The Spanish Football Federation's attitude of "ignoring and not retaining" disappointed Calagones, and the news that former Real Madrid coach Bosque had already talked about becoming Spain's coach is also well known, which clearly announced that the Spanish Football Federation gave up Calagones first.

Therefore, when the news broke in the domestic media that the Football Association intended to renew his contract for two years, Calagones still decided to leave: "No one told me anything after Spain qualified from the qualifiers, I decided to leave at that time, and I will not look back now." ”

In short, Calagones had to go, but before leaving, he had to do one last thing: lead Spain to the European Championships.

'At the moment the team is in a very good state of mind, there is a lot of self-confidence, I believe we will win, although the Belgian team is also very strong, the players are very good, but any team that wants to win the trophy has to play from the beginning with the belief that they must win.

Spain's top scorer Villa is out through injury, but the team has already been documented and manager Aragonés has hinted that Cesc Fabregas will come in as a substitute.

With Villa injured and another substitute striker, Guiza, who had the best chance, Calagones was thinking first about changing the squad and adding another man in midfield, saying: "When you lose a player like Villa, you are always worried, but I know Cesc Fabregas can do a good job in midfield. ”

In the semi-final against Russia, it was Cesc Fabregas who replaced the injured Villa, who provided the latter two goals, and after the game, Calagones said that Spain had more control when playing as a single striker than playing two strikers.

Calagones is also pleased with Spain's current form: "My team is in good shape, it's a very good time for us and I hope we can win important things together. ”

Spain will be hoping to win the trophy again after 44 years and make up for the loss to the French 24 years ago, while Belgium will reach the final for the first time in 28 years.

In Euro 1980, Belgium's golden generation gave them the opportunity to touch the highest glory of European football, but in the final, they lost to West Germany, which was in full swing at the time, and now the opportunity is lost in front of the Belgians, although they are not favored, but the Belgians will do their best.

"I know where we are now, people are not optimistic about our prospects, almost everyone thinks that Belgium is very lucky to have come to this point!"

Antienes seems to be a bit of a low-key man, the psychology master, who has always come across as suave and never seems to be like those character coaches, who make a big deal out of the media, but today he wants to surprise everyone.

"However, I don't think so, to be able to get to this day, is the result of our desperate efforts, in the group stage, we lacked the most important core players, but in the end we entered the knockout round as the group leader, two knockout games, we are not facing simple opponents, Germany, Turkey, those who have watched their games know that they are very strong, I want to say, since we have defeated so many opponents and come to this day, why can't we go further! Spain are the favourites to win the tournament and in my opinion it doesn't make any sense, the expectations will put them under more pressure, compared to us! As for the final, I think it's a 5-5 win rate and whoever gets the last laugh is a reasonable result, but my players and I are ready to celebrate! ”

Antienes looks very confident, the source of his self-confidence, of course, is Degan, the two European Cup knockout games have made everyone see the horror of Degan, facing Germany to score a hat trick, facing Turkey with a pass and a shot, and creating a penalty, now who else can stop Degan, perhaps the common proposition of the whole world football.

With four goals now in his tally and joint top scorer with Belgium, he can claim the title of top scorer at the European Championship as long as he can score one more goal, and Degan, who has always been hungry for goals, will obviously not miss this opportunity.

'We are ready for a crucial game, Spain are strong? I think that's just someone else's opinion, they did play a few good games in this European Championship, but so what, they're still my losers, they have nothing to be proud of before they beat me! ”

Degan's remarks will undoubtedly arouse the hatred of all Spanish fans, for Spanish football, even if they finally defeated Belgium in the game on the 29th and won the cup smoothly, but the old incident three years ago, they will never forget, if it were not for Degan and Belgium led by him, maybe this golden generation would have been able to show their style to fans all over the world in the World Cup in Germany.

Moreover, the most unacceptable thing for the Spaniards is that before that game, Belgium had already qualified in advance, but they still refused to let Spain go.

"I know the Spaniard wants revenge in this game, so well! Even though I came, I was never afraid of any kind of challenge, my teammates were the same, and I never felt guilty about what happened in the first place, the Spaniards wanted to go to the World Cup, that was just their idea, the same way, Serbia and Montenegro at that time, also needed a chance to play fair, I just did what a player should do, as for how painful the Spaniards would be, me! ”

At this time, Digan stabbed the hornet's nest, and even the old comrade of King Carlos of Spain jumped out to accuse Digan of being a "vulgar guy".

What kind of fart the old girl is, Deegan doesn't care, just the day before the finals start, Deegan welcomed a few special guests on the training ground.