Euro 2012: The verdict from our Experts' Network - Croatia to Holland | Marcus Christenson

Our experts deliver their verdicts on best and worst players, best and worst moments and rate their teams' overall performance

Croatia

Our best player The real star of this team was the manager, Slaven Bilic. He made the players better, prepared them in the best possible way – both physically and psychologically – and made a series of clever tactical calls to extract the maximum from a good, but not great team.

Most disappointing player Eduardo – but only because he didn't get enough chances to play, which obviously wasn't his fault. I thought he really could have made an impact at this tournament, which would have been thoroughly deserved considering he missed the last Euros, when he had been at the top of his game, because of a terrible injury.

Our best moment Luka Modric's breakout run and fantastic outside-of-the-foot cross for Ivan Rakitic's chance against Spain. It was the moment when, as Arsène Wenger observed, Croatia made Spain look human again.

Worst moment A few minutes from time in the match against Spain, when we were not awarded a penalty despite a blatant foul on Vedran Corluka in the box.

Overall rating and a look ahead: 8/10. Croatia performed really well and left a good impression. Unfortunately, they were unable to get the result they wanted. The only below-par performance was in the first half against Italy, when the team looked really bad, but then Slaven Bilic unexpectedly changed the formation and turned the game around.

People mocked Bilic when he said he wanted to win the Euros. But after seeing Italy and Spain reach the final, that no longer seems to have been entirely crazy: Croatia handled both teams very well and could have won both of those games.

Croatia should build on the atmosphere within the team, which has been really good, for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers . All of the guys who played at this tournament should be available and that's a great advantage, but the new manager, Igor Stimac, should also look to introduce a few youngsters – especially at the defensive end, where Croatia has very few options.

Stimac is a completely different character to Bilic. He has very little coaching experience and it is hard to say how he will fare at this level. But what really worries me is the overall situation in Croatian football: problems with corruption and heavily neglected at grassroots level for years. That is no environment for talent to come through so I really dread the long-term future of Croatian football.

Player of the tournament Andrea Pirlo

Words by Aleksandar Holiga, tportal.hr

Czech Republic

Our best player Petr Jiracek. The energetic midfielder showed that he has truly recovered after the first six difficult months at Wolfsburg with an early goal against Greece and did not look back after that. He adapted well to a new position on the right side of midfield and scored another crucial goal against Poland.

Most disappointing player Our 12th player: the fans. The comparison might be harsh but when the Irish fans were supporting their team despite the heavy defeat against Spain, the Czech players must have felt bitter. Their own fans turned against them right after the defeat against Russia and whistled at Michal Bilek and Milan Baros even before the second game against Greece. Their support improved after that but it was still a poor show.

Our best moment The afternoon before the last group game against co-hosts Poland. People in Wroclaw really warmed to the Czechs and I've never experienced such a friendly atmosphere before such a crucial game. The Wroclaw marketplace was full of Czech and Polish fans, singing together, hugging each other and wishing one another well. It was a footballing Woodstock.

Worst moment The moment in the first half of the game against Greece when someone kicked Tomas Rosicky's achilles. He did not play in the tournament again – a huge blow to the team's chances.

Overall performance and a look ahead: 6/10. Despite the heavy defeat in their first game against Russia, the Czechs got what they came for: a place in the quarter-finals. Their game lacked invention and was not very easy on the eye at times (partly because of Rosicky's injury), but the team showed great determination and fighting spirit to overcome Greece and Poland to finish top of the group.

Several of the younger players made an impact - Jiracek, Vaclav Pilar, Theodor Gebre Selassie or David Limbersky – which gives the team hope going into the World Cup qualifying campaign. On the other hand, the quarter-final against Portugal showed that the Czechs still lack the experience and the skill to compete with the best. They will certainly gain the former, but the prevailing feeling is that the pool of players lack the quality to provide the latter.

The main task for Bilek, who has had his contract extended until 2014, is to unveil find a goalscorer, especially now that Milan Baros has retired from international football. The coach believed in the striker despite the fact that he was just a shadow of the attacking beast he was in 2004. Those who deputised for him at the Euros are not up to the task yet and with Tomas Necid's knee problems, there is a shortage of strikers with international experience.

On the other side, Tomas Hubschman, a player whose international career was seemingly nearing its end, proved that he is still the best holding midfielder. When he was selected against Greece he gave the midfield a sense of security and was constantly showing that, at 30, his passing and overall game are still improving.

So the outlook must not be as bleak as the first paragraph of this section might have suggested. The team have made constant progress since last year and if the Czechs keep that up they might be the dark horses of a World Cup qualifying group that includes Italy and Denmark.

Player of the tournament Andrea Pirlo

Words by Michal Petrak, Denik Sport

Denmark

Our best player Daniel Agger showed the experience you can expect from a regular in Liverpool's line-up. A real warrior.

Most disappointing player Big clubs have been sniffing around Christian Eriksen for quite some time now but if they followed him at Euro 2012 he may end up somewhere like, er, Rangers.

Our best moment Michael Krohn-Dehli's goal that virtually sent Holland home. They way Krohn-Dehli split the Dutch defence and coolly slotted the ball between Maarten Stekelenburg's legs was truly exquisite.

Worst moment When Simon Busk Poulsen should have made himself big as an oak tree against Portugal he seemed to turn into a bamboo stick, letting Silvestre Varela score the deciding goal. If only …

Overall performance and a look ahead: 7/10. For a small country such as Denmark, finishing third in the group of death is perfectly acceptable. We even came close to pipping Portugal to second place, something no one would have expected before the tournament.

The future looks bright for the World Cup qualifiers. Most of the Danish players are young and more and more of them are playing at reasonably big clubs in Europe. If Eriksen begins to fulfil the expectations and Nicklas Bendtner continues his positive form it does not look all too bad. A group of Italy, The Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Malta and Armenia sounds hard but us Danes have done OK in hard groups before…

Player of the tournament Andrea Pirlo

Words by Thomas Lund Hansen, Jyllands-Posten

England

Our best player Steven Gerrard will never hit his Liverpool heights in an England shirt, but he was disciplined in every game, eschewing his natural Hollywood tendencies for the good of the team. And he was a genuine and decent captain. He didn't start any mutinies against the manager, for a start.

Most disappointing player Wayne Rooney always takes a while to get back up to speed after returning to any team, and nothing changed here. Allowing him to bugger off to Vegas before the tournament may not have been Roy's finest decision.

Our best moment Danny Welbeck's adroit flick against Sweden pips Andy Carroll's powerful header. A nod to Theo Walcott in the same match, too, if only because the developing pattern suggests he won't be doing that again for another three years.

Worst moment Andrea Pirlo's penalty, the most humiliating slap-down in the history of penalty shootouts.

Overall performance and a look ahead: 5/10 England, a couple of lax moments against Sweden apart, looked fairly solid at the back. On the whole. Still, it's not much of a philosophy to take forward. England were outclassed and embarrassed against Italy, and Hodgson will need to inject some creative verve into the team - or the criticisms and expectations that saw him succumb at Liverpool will soon engulf him here too.

Player of the tournament Mario Balotelli

Words by Scott Murray

France

Our best player I guess that Yohan Cabaye and Hugo Lloris were the best players of the French national team at the Euros. They were the most consistent and maybe the only ones that played at their highest level during the whole tournament. Jérémy Ménez was good against Ukraine, Laurent Koscielny was good against Spain, but only Cabaye and Lloris were good in all their games.

Most disappointing player Maybe Samir Nasri. He played well against England but had a personal vendetta against the French journalists and that made him completely lose his focus. He was not able to deal with the pressure and there were a lot of people who were just waiting for him to make a mistake. Nasri can clearly be a difficult character but he does not deserve such a hate from the French people and media.

Our best moment The victory against Ukraine. I have no choice …

Worst moment The defeat against Sweden even if I love Zlatan Ibrahimovic more than any of the players of the French national team …

Overall performance and a look ahead: 5/10. France got out of the group but were then beaten by Spain in a very tactical encounter. It was not as terrible as the 2010 World Cup but it was only marginally better. Laurent Blanc has stepped down and, despite there being a lot of expectation ahead of Euro 2012, we start from scratch again for the World Cup qualifiers. There are several young French players around, but the new manager will need to make them play as a team. And we've only got Spain in our World Cup qualifying group.

Player of the tournament Andrea Pirlo

Words by Franck Annese, So Foot

Germany

Our best player Sami Khedira was the fulcrum of this Germany side. While Bastian Schweinsteiger was searching for his best form, the babyfaced Khedira played powerfully and without compromises. He was hard to beat in defence and drove his team forward in attack. His goal against Greece was a symbol for his appearances at this tournament: strong, elegant and unpredictable.

Most disappointing player Thomas Müller. After the 2010 World Cup 201o everyone believed that he would become the future leader of the national team. After this Bundesliga-season and the Euros, however, everyone knows that there are several alternatives for his position: for example Marco Reus, André Schürrle, Mario Götze.

Our best moment The win against Greece, with Marco Reus and André Schürrle coming in to take the 2004 champions apart. The goals were superb as well.

Worst moment Unquestionably the defeat against Italy when so much hope had been built up.

Overall performance and a look ahead: 7/10. After the 2010 World Cup 2010 everyone knew how strong the German team was. We wanted the title but in the end Jogi Löw and the boys just made it through to the semifinal. They did, however, play some exciting football. I grew up in the 70s and 80s so it is still a luxurious position for me.

So please excuse me but I find it hard to criticise the team. There are enough good players in the squad and the coach has a big enough squad to rotate his first XI. Löw showed he had the courage to make changes: That was modern; it was surprising; and it was good to see.

But on the other hand we did not reach the final. That is disappointing, because our expectations were bigger than reaching just the semis. I'm looking forward to the World Cup qualifiers because we had the youngest team at the Euros and I am sure it still has a golden future.

Player of the tournament Mario Balotelli

Words by Tim Jürgens, 11Freunde

Greece

Our best player Kyriakos Papadopoulos, without a shadow of a doubt. He was only supposed to get a few minutes of play in the tournament but with Avraam Papadopoulos injured and Sokratis Papastathopoulos getting sent off, Papadopoulos came in and ensured that the foundations of the Greek defence remained solid. He is only 20 years old but he looks set to feature for years to come. A possible future captain.

Most disappointing player Kostas Chalkias. The 36-year-old goalkeeper was supposed to offer the calmness and stability because of his experience but instead became a liability for the Greek defence. Twenty-five minutes into the second game against the Czechs, with Greece 2-0 down, Chalkias asked to be a substituted because of a minor injury, at least having the clear mind to not burden his team further. He narrowly beat Jose Holebas to the biggest disappointment of the Greek team.

Best moment Russia are outplaying Greece but then Giorgos Karagounis picks up the ball outside the box, powers through their defence and applies a brutal finish to put Greece ahead and into the quarter-finals.

Worst moment Sami Khedira scoring for Germany six minutes after the George Samaras had equalised for Greece.

Overall performance and a look ahead In terms of football style: 5/10. In terms of success: 8/10. It is Greece's second most successful campaign, after the win at Euro 2004. Overall, though, Euro 2012 was a success. The team is currently going through a transition with the veterans of 2004 retiring and the younger players getting more and more responsibilities on and off the pitch.

What the team needs moving forward is to keep Fernando Santos as coach (already done – he signed his new contract a day before the Quarter-final) and giving key roles to younger players such as Vassilis Torosidis, Sotiris Ninis, Avraam Papadopoulos, Giannis Maniatis, Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Giorgos Tzavellas, Costas Mitroglou, Ioannis Fetfatzidis and Michalis Sifakis in order for them to mature and guide Greece to Brazil.

Player of the tournament Andrea Pirlo

Words by Stavros Drakoularakos, sport24.gr

Holland

Our best player Wesley Sneijder. He was the only "big name" who delivered, on the pitch and off the pitch. Talking to the media, he did not come up with any excuses for Holland's failure, was tough in his criticism of the team and said sorry to all the Dutch fans.

Most disappointing player John Heitinga. Holland started the tournament with problems in defence - and it did not get better as the tournament went on. We lack a world-class central defender with the strength and pace like Jaap Stam in his best days, but Heitinga was Everton's player of the year.

Our best moment The goal from Rafael van der Vaart against Portugal was a beautifully placed, curling shot into the top corner. An act that contrasted with everything else Holland did.

Worst moment Denmark, Germany and Portugal all scored their first goals against Holland in the second quarter of the game (between minutes 15 and 30) and in all three matches it was "game over" immediately.

Overall performance and a look ahead: 3/10 Bert van Marwijk and his players started Euro 2012 as World Cup finalists, but they never came close to making it to the final again. The problems were everywhere. It started before the tournament, with an awful game against Bulgaria, in which Robin van Persie played at right wing and did not link up well with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who played up front. That game drove the rivalry between the two strikers to the maximum. Later that week Van Marwijk told Huntelaar that Van Persie would be his first choice up front for the tournament, and after that decision Huntelaar did nothing in favour of the team anymore. Maybe it had been better if he had been sent home before the first game.

In all three games Holland started well but after the first goal of the opponents, the team broke into two parts. Up front creative players such as Wesley Sneijder, Van Persie and Arjen Robben wanted to press but in midfield and at the back players such as Mark van Bommel, Nigel de Jong and John Heitinga wanted to sit back and control the game. Where teams such as Spain attack and defend with only 35 meters distance between the deepest striker and the last defender, Holland played most of the time with 50 or 60 meters between attack and defence.

The result was a lot of frustrations between the players. In 2010 in South Africa, Holland were a "team" for six weeks in total. Now they were a collection of individuals. Van Marwijk should perhaps have done more to avoid this, but he trusted his big players, thinking that they would solve problems themselves, knowing that this was the last opportunity for a very skilful generation of world-class players to win a big tournament.

Ten days after Holland went home with their worst result in history (three defeats and no points), Van Marwijk decided to quit after four years. His successor should be someone who makes harsh decisions. For Example: Huntelaar or Van Persie in the team. Not both. And maybe decide to end the international careers of players such as Van der Vaart, who will be 31 by the time of the next World Cup. During the last two tournaments Van der Vaart (99 caps in total) has only been a substitute.

Holland have a friendly against Belgium on 15 August. The World Cup qualifiers start in September with Holland playing their three biggest rivals (Turkey, Romania and Hungary) in the first four matches.

Player of the tournament Sergio Ramos

Words by Maarten Wijffels, Algemeen Dagblad Read More [category Sport][tags Euro 2012, Football, Sport, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, England, Holland, France]

Euro 2012: The verdict from our Experts' Network - Italy to Ukraine | Marcus Christenson

Our experts deliver their verdicts on best and worst players, best and worst moments and rate their teams' overall performance

Italy

Our best player Mario Balotelli because he is the new super star of this team. And because no one thought he could be so competitive at this level. Andrea Pirlo also gets a mention because he is not only the playmaker but covers so much ground as well (against Germany almost 12 kilometres, the second longest distance after Claudio Marchisio).

Most disappointing player Antonio Di Natale. After almost 100 goals in three seasons in Serie A he missed his opportunity to show a wider public what he is capable of.

Our best moments Pirlo's penalty against England because that was the moment that changed Italy's destiny. And Balotelli's pose after his second goal against Germany because we found a new hero.

Worst moment Riccardo Montolivo missing his penalty against England was bad. That moment seemed to be the end of our adventure. But perhaps even worse was the time before the match Spain-Croatia when we feared another 2-2 would wreck our chances of qualifying from the group. I presume everyone now knows the meaning of the Italian phrase "biscotto" (biscuit)?

Overall rating and a look ahead: 9/10. No one expected this team to be so competitive. Just a few days before the tournament they were beaten 3-0 by Russi. It was embarrassing. No one seemed to know what to do on the pitch. After few days into the tournament, however, in the first match against Spain, we found a new purpose, thanks to Cesare Prandelli, who was at his first major tournament as a manager.

Player of the tournament Andrés Iniesta

Words by Simone Stenti, La Stampa

Poland

Our best player No one really stood out, sadly. The Dortmund trio were disappointing and Wojciech Szczesny seemd paralysed by the occasion. Marcin Wasilewski did not disappoint, though. He was not even in the squad a year ago, but the players convinced Franciszek Smuda that his presence in the squad would improve the atmosphere. He can play at centre-back and right-back and he was the only player to give honest interviews with the press. "We shouldn't be applauded for our efforts," he said after Poland were eliminated. "We should be kicked in our arses for not making it out of the arguably the weakest group of the Euros.

Most disappointing player Jakub Blaszczykowski – not a worthy team captain as he, after the exit, attacked Grzegorz Lato of the Polish FA. First he was applauded but then it transpired that he had had an argument with the former player over how many tickets he wanted for one of Poland's game. Apparently he wanted more than eight …

Our best moment (s) The two goals by Robert Lewandowski and Blaszczykowski, The first was a massive eruption at the national stadium and in the fan zones (over 100,000 in Warsaw and others were packed to the limit too. The streets were empty - everyone was watching football. Generally the hype on the streets, kids in national team colours, everyone talking football and the welcome all the visitors received in Poland.

Worst moment The disappointment of the Polska team but then I did not really expect anything else. The Warsaw riots, that were not really riots but were presented as such on TV and gave our country a bad name.

Overall performance and a look ahead: 3/10 (although 9/10 for atmosphere) We need a new manager as Smuda is off. We would also need to get rid of the faded foxes (Obraniak, Perquis, Polanski, Boenisch) – I doubt they will want to play now anyway so that may take care of that problem. I'd also try to talk to Artur Boruc as Szczesny proved in the first game that he is not a finished product yet.

Player of the tournament

Andrea Pirlo Words by Maciej Slominski, futbolnet.pl

Portugal

Our best player Most people seem to agree that Pepe and João Moutinho were Portugal's best players at Euro 2012. The difficulty lies in choosing between them, but maybe the No1 was Moutinho. Highly valued in Portugal before the tournament, now all of Europe knows that he is a complete midfielder, a team player.

Most disappointing player It is unfair to say that Nani was a disappointment, because he played very well at times, but Portugal missed that "extra" that he could give, specially when other teams focused too much on stopping Cristiano Ronaldo.

Our best moment Silvestre Varela's goal against Denmark. Portugal had lost to Germany in the first game, and in the second they lost a 2-0 lead as the Danes made it 2-1. Qualification for the quarter-finals would have been very difficult with that result but Paul Bento put Varela on and he scored the winning goal six minutes from time.

Worst moment Bruno Alves's penalty, which hit the crossbar was an ironic end to Portugal's campaign. The Seleção had already hit the woodwork six times in the previous matches, and that lack of luck came back to haunt the team again. To make the exit even more painful, Cesc Fábregas also hit the post with the next penalty, but his shot went in.

Overall performance and a look ahead: 8/10 Expectations were low before the tournament but Portugal did tremendously well. The Seleção was in the so called group of death, with the favourites Germany and Holland as well as Denmark, the team that won Portugal's qualification group. The bad results in the pre-tournament friendlies and the defeat against Germany increased the pessimism around the team, but Portugal reached the semi-finals, showing great team spirit. Now it is time to think iabout the 2014 World Cup and avoid underestimating any of our opponents after this strong showing. Euro 2012 showed that Portugal still have talented players, but it is important that in the next years Portuguese clubs invest more in young talents.

Player of the tournament Andrés Iniesta

Words by Nuno Travassos, Maisfutebol

Republic of Ireland

Our best player Keith Andrews. The only Irish player that didn't appear either outmanoeuvred or just completely exposed by the level. That was because, unlike the rest of an underperforming team, he applied his ability to the absolute maximum. A classic example came in the first game against Croatia. As Ireland were being unravelled, Andrews successfully hounded Luka Modric in one moment only to try and drive the team forward with the ball in the next. It was all too rare.

Most disappointing player A toss-up between the two most experienced: Shay Given and Robbie Keane. But, whereas Keane arguably only showed his age and lack of fitness, Given was more disappointing in that, on the big stage with his country, he made the kind of errors that were completely absent from the majority of his career.

Our best moment Even during the weekend of the final in Kiev, people were still talking about the fans. It's easy to be cynical. It's genuinely hard to make an impression like that.

Worst moment Cesc Fábregas being the only Spanish player in the Irish box at a corner yet still scoring.

Overall performance and a look ahead: 2/10. A disaster. The sheer difficulty of Ireland's group meant that a whitewash was always a possibility but the most disappointing aspect was the manner of it. A side that prides itself on its ferocity, for example, gave Spain their easiest tournament game in the last six years. That's lamentable.

Here, whatever about the quality of the squad, Giovanni Trapattoni has to take at least some blame. Despite having repeatedly talked about the dangers of only playing two central midfielders in modern international football, he still persisted with against the ultimate exponents of passing football. It was asking for trouble.

It was also the most telling illustration of Trapattoni's biggest flaw since taking over Ireland: his refusal to adapt or evolve in any way. Some capable young players have been sidelined or ignored, with that reflected in the fact Ireland had the second oldest squad in the tournament.

The first thing Trapattoni has to do is at least start to work with an alternative system and freshen up personnel.

Player of the tournament Andrea Pirlo

Miguel Delaney, Irish Examiner

Russia

Our best player Alan Dzagoev. His ability to perform at the highest level did not come as a surprise for Russian fans but he has always been more of a provider than finisher, so these goals were really a sign of progress for him. More significantly, Dzagoev proved he can be the player to build the Russian team around – given it needs a radical overhaul before the World Cup 2014 qualification campaign.

Most disappointing player Sergey Ignashevich. He was Russia's first-choice centre-back for ages, and no one really expected him to give way for Jakub Blaczsykowki's run-and-strike that easily. He also made a mistake that led to Giorgos Karagounis' goal, the one that eliminated Russia.

Our best moment Three consecutive fast breaks in the game against Czech Republic that resulted in two goals. Russia only had six counter attacks in the entire Euro 2012 qualifying campaign.

Worst moment In the 80th minute of the game against Poland, Andrey Arshavin played the ball square and then waved his hand in protest, stopping his team-mates from passing the ball back to him. Coming from Russia captain and best player, that was truly awful.

Overall performance and a look ahead: 4/10 Russia surprised many with the performance against the Czech Republic, proving they can not only play the possession game, which was used in the qualifiers.

Then the old system prevailed. Only Spain and Italy had the ball on average more than Russia but Dick Advocaat's men really struggled to create chances. Only two shots on target against Poland and Greece showed the lack of creativity in attack. Advocaat's managerial style surely did not help. Under him, Russia have only once came from behind to win a game, and his substitutions, once again, failed to change the games. During the last minutes against Greece, the centre-back Alexey Berezutskiy played as a right winger, and dribbled the ball out of the pitch, losing precious seconds.

A new manager, who has not been announced yet, will have to replace at least half of the veteran players in this team. That is definitely considered a positive in Russia.

Player of the tournament Andrea Pirlo

Words by Ivan Kalashnikov, sports.ru

Spain

Our best player Sergio Ramos

Most disappointing player No one really but, before the final, David Silva had not been able to reproduce his form at Manchester City.

Our best moment Demolishing Italy in the final was sweet, especially after all the criticism they have come in for.

Worst moment When we dreaded going out on penalties against Portugal

Overall performance and a look ahead: 10/10 A third tournament win in a row speaks for itself. This team does not need a revolution. It needs to keep evolving, just as it has here in Poland and Ukraine.

Player of the tournament Sergio Ramos

Words by Juan Castro, Marca

Sweden

Our best player Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Sure, he was involved in two goals that Sweden conceded but offensively he showed many times why he is highly rated and was always a threat, scoring goals and setting up team-mates.

Most disappointing player Rasmus Elm never reached the heights we thought he would. Maybe because he was so hyped before the Euros (and the media has to take some blame for that) and some times played out of position, but he never excelled in a way Sweden needed him to.

Our best moment Zlatan's brilliant and stunning goal against France. Even though Sweden were already out of he Euros the team's superstar gave the massive army of Swedish fans something to celebrate.

Worst moment The opening game against Ukraine during which both the coach, Erik Hamrén, and quite a few players showed that they were not really ready for the magnitude of the Euros. Dropping three points there put the whole campaign on the wrong foot and it never recovered.

Overall performance and a look ahead: 4/10 Sweden came with a dream of a medal and a vision of playing an attacking and creative football and it ended badly after two games. In the first match coach Erik Hamren - also a newcomer to major tournaments - gambled with a more attack-minded team to win against Ukraine and with fewer experienced players in the starting XI. Too many of them could not handle the pressure and Ukraine won 2-1. The strength of Swedish teams has always been the defence but Hamren's team leaked five goals in the first two games and with no points to show for their efforts they were out, which is not good enough. Beating France was impressive, but it was too late for it to matter.

The Swedish football federation has given Hamren its full support, as well as the important players, and they are now aiming for Brazil saying that they will learn from this experience. "Give me more time and we will be successful," Hamrén said after the tournament and now it is up to him to deliver on that promise.

Player of the tournament Andrea Pirlo

Words by Olof Lundh, fotbollskanalen.se

Ukraine

Our best player Yevhen Khacheridi. Has appeared nervous in the past but was calm and reliable in this tournament. Was heavily criticised in the winter but at Euro- 2012 he was the best player in the Ukrainian squad. An incredible transformation!

Most disappointing player Oleh Gusev. He is a very strong attackinging midfielder, but the Ukrainian team were missing a quick and experienced right-back, so Oleg Blokhin put him in this position. Gusev showed good attacking skills, but his defensive showing was frustrating. A victim of circumstances.

Our best moment Andriy Shevchenko, like in his best football years, running to the meet ball from a corner and scoring the winning goal against Sweden. Zlatan Ibrahimovic lost his position, lost his opponent, lost the ball and lost the game. Sheva again was against No1, even if it was just for one game.

Worst moment Hungarian referee who did not see that the ball had crossed Joe Hart's goalline when John Terry "saved" England.

Overall performance and a look ahead: 6/10. Some people from the football federation thought we could win this tournament but most fans were more realistic. At times Oleg Blokhin's team have played awfully, at times they have played boring football and at times they have been indifferent. But not at this tournament.

They played with heart and tried to beat better opponents. Ukraine left tournament with their heads held high. Still, the tournament left a taste of disappointment in our mouths. Against England we played well, controlling the ball but missing some good chances. After defeat to France we saw them against Sweden and realised that they were not that good after all.

The most positive aspect was the performance of our young players - Khacheridi, Andriy Yarmolenko, Yevhen Konoplyanka, Yaroslav Rakitskiy and Denis Harmash. Despite the fact that Shevchenko and Andriy Voronin are leaving the national team, this group of players will have a bright future and this tournament can be the first step for success of this generation.

Player of the tournament Andrés Iniesta

Words by Igor Boyko, Football Style Read More [category Sport][tags Euro 2012, Football, Sport, Italy, Sweden, Ukraine, Spain, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Russia]

Euro 2012: Spain are great but they are not a team of great moments | Rob Smyth

Vicente del Bosque's side produced a signature performance but not one worthy of its own Wikipedia page

It is only right that a unique team, as Spain are, should stand alone in the pantheon. No international side has won three major tournaments in a row before, unless you count the Olympics in the 1920s and 1930s. Since Euro 2008 they have exerted a numbing superiority over every team they have played and even those who advocate Satan for a living might struggle to argue that Spain are not the strongest international side of all.

Spain's miracle has been drastically to minimise the variables of knockout football and make themselves near to unbeatable. Even a more talented Barcelona side could not come close to such invincibility. Spain have not conceded a goal in a knockout game since 2006. Iker Casillas's net has been untouched for sixteen and a half hours.

Before Sunday night Spain had not been so spectacular at the other end, with only eight goals in seven games at the 2010 World Cup and eight in five here, yet their method of killing teams softly has an irresistible logic. The level of sustained concentration required to defend against them is almost indecent, a game of Tetris that can end only one way. If such demands were evident in an ordinary job, the Health & Safety office would have a field day.

The side generally perceived as the greatest of all, Brazil 1970, were the antithesis of Spain; their defence was hopeless and their attack peerless. They cannot match Spain's longevity. With no Copa América staged between 1967 and 1975, Brazil won just one trophy. At the 1974 World Cup they had turned into a thuggish rabble.

Spain have evolved significantly over the last four years, although their game can still be explained in one phonetically pleasing phrase: tiki-taka. Few sides have had such a concise identity, with Holland's Total Football in 1974 perhaps the only equivalent. Not since that team has football been so dramatically redefined.

Teams who win multiple tournaments usually add stars to their shirt, just above the badge. Some will feel Spain should add an asterisk. It is a strange thing on which to reflect after such a joyous, unfettered performance, yet Spain's display vindicated only the naysayers. Discussion about the B-word has become boring in itself – it is surely more relevant to discuss whether Spain's matches are boring, a different point entirely – even if it is interesting to note that the team's heartbeat and rhetorician, Xavi Hernández, said "of course we were boring" at the 2010 World Cup, citing defensive opponents as the reason.

Spain's football is without precedent in its velvet grace but it is difficult to argue persuasively that their matches have satisfied conventional notions of football entertainment – goals, shots, engaging the viscera; that kind of thing.

Their play at Euro 2012 had felt cynical and clinical, in a different sense of the word from that usually used in football; a kind of extreme tiki-taka, or tiki-takanaccio. For much of the tournament the only excitement came from the partnership of Jordi Alba and the divine Andrés Iniesta, simply the most beautiful player in football history.

Italy's relatively aggressive tactics were influential, yet the way Spain subjected them to death by silk suggested a team that had been hiding some of their light under a bushel. For plenty, rightly or wrongly, Spain will be remembered as a side who engaged the brain more than the soul and who could, with their talent, have won three consecutive titles even more impressively than they did, a binary team whose games, before the final at least, had been so predictable as to be a bookmaker's nightmare.

That Spain are great is palpably not in question, not in sentient circles; whether they are one of the immortal sides remains open to debate. On Sunday night they supplied a signature performance, even if it was not quite up there with the greatest, like England 3-6 Hungary in 1953 – which has its own page on Wikipedia, eBay and even IMDb - or Barcelona's 5-0 defeat of Real Madrid in 2010. Spain have not had a great contest, like West Germany's 2-1 over Holland in 1974 or Brazil's 1-0 against England four years earlier, or a great goal. Delicious as their first goal was against Italy – it's not quite right to call it David Silva's goal, such was the part played by Iniesta and Cesc Fábregas – it will not be appearing on a BBC3 clips show alongside Carlos Alberto, Marco van Basten and Richard Bacon any time soon.

Spain have not necessarily been a team of great moments. Those of a Spanish disposition will disagree, of course. There have been three in particular, the lifting of trophies by Iker Casillas. Moments that define a team who, whether loved or merely respected, have created one of the greatest sporting dynasties of them all. Read More [category Sport][tags Euro 2012, Spain, Football, Sport]

The Joy of Six: how we'll remember Euro 2012 | Scott Murray

From Andrea Pirlo's cheeky penalty to Mario Balotelli's coming of age, here are half a dozen things we will not forget

1. Pre-match countdowns

Football fans have been fairly adept at generating their own anticipatory atmospheres for the best part of 150 years now, so of course Uefa thinks it knows better, imposing this numeric atrocity on events. They could scarcely be more condescending if they wheeled out a giant Fisher Price activity centre and slowly explained the function of each squeaky button. One PA goon misjudged his countdown entirely, but carried on yakking his neck long into the match regardless. Hopefully this ersatz Space Shuttle homage will be the final straw, encouraging fans to rise up against all manner of obtrusive public-address disgraces once and for all, with special brickbats aimed at those playing music after goals, and hollering mindless platitudes during trophy presentations. Three, two, one … time for revolution, comrades!

2. Delaney's day out

Giovanni Trapattoni's side were a thundering non-event, so it was down to FAI suit John Delaney to leave an Irish impression on the tournament. He did that all right with a tired and emotional performance on the streets of Sopot at carouse o'clock, downing shots with fans who eventually made off with his shoes and socks. "A couple of hundred fans raised me up in the air and carried me head-high home," he later groaned, while adroitly balancing a bag of ice on his forehead. "Now if that's a crime, I'm not guilty." You've got a fair idea what Roy Keane makes of all this, haven't you.

3. Pirlo's penalty

Keepers: if you're going to showcase the dance of the giddy goat during a penalty shootout, make sure you've worked on the act first. When Jerzy Dudek jigged about during the 2005 Champions League final, his gentle, understated contortions put the fear of God into Andrea Pirlo.

You could see the hope draining from his eyes. He crumbled. But here, Joe Hart played it too big, and Pirlo's peepers betrayed only pity. The subsequent Panenka was the greatest momentum shifter in the history of All Sport. Hart was left rolling impotently on the turf like an upended tortoise. England never recovered their poise, knocked out by the most delicate of killer blows.

4. Roy and Oleh's pressers

England's press conferences got such a reputation for relaxed, refined and downright urbane bonhomie, you could be forgiven for assuming Roy Hodgson and Steven Gerrard regularly took to the stage and traded a cavalcade of epigrams in the style of Algernon and Jack from The Importance of Being Earnest. It wasn't quite like that. Indeed Mr Roy could be irritable and spiky; at one point he fell into a monosyllabic funk when a journalist likened his defensive side to Italy, historic masters of catenaccio, in retrospect an overly flattering comparison. At least Mr Roy kept it civil through gritted teeth, unlike the Ukraine coach Oleh Blokhin, who offered one fearless interrogator outside on to the pavement for a "man conversation". Still, give Roy time, a couple of draws in World Cup qualifying should do it.

5. The great tiki-taka tiff

Were Spain boring? Were the people who called Spain boring boring? It's a debate which sucked everyone into a supermassive black hole of hot air and hyperbole, spinning us round and round like a 648-pass ball-recycling movement conducted by Xavi and Andrés Iniesta. The brouhaha consumed Euro 2012, rumbling on all month, with Spain's defenders and detractors getting equally flustered. But this is the Guardian, so let's say everyone had a point: tiki-taka's a tactic of totalitarian genius, albeit one that, a superb performance in the final being the exception that proved the rule, won't quite elevate Spain alongside Brazil 82 and Hungary 53 in the aesthete's canon. But hey, count the trophies..

6. Balotelli's coming of age

Defensive lockdown is in vogue, yet there were some good old‑fashioned belters nevertheless: Zlatan Ibrahimovic's scissor flick against France, Marco Reus's larrup versus Greece, and Andy Carroll's paean to creative ultraviolence against Sweden. (That latter match was notable as the first time for years when all England's goalscorers smiled broadly and sweetly while celebrating, rather than screaming in anger at the crowd, a sense of innocent excitement rather than irritating entitlement. It's the most carefree England have been since the 1960s, when the team used to celebrate goals by jumping for joy and performing roly-polys. But we digress.) The biggest impression was made by Mario Balotelli, though, whose back-to-basics thrash against Germany, a proper jaw-dropping netripper, won a superb semi-final, and signalled his coming of age on the world stage. Now all it takes is for the cartoonists and headline writers back in Italy to grow up as well, and everyone's happy. Read More [category Sport][tags Euro 2012, Spain, Mario Balotelli, Italy, Football, Sport]

Defending champions Spain win Euro 2012

Defending champions Spain claimed an historic third successive major trophy with a 4-0 rout of Italy in the Euro 2012 final in Kiev Sunday.Read More[category Sport]

Spain routs Italy in Euro 2012

Defending champions Spain claimed an historic third successive major international trophy with a 4-0 rout of Italy in the Euro 2012 final in Kiev Sunday.Read More[category World]

Spain V Italy : UEFA Euro 2012 Match Report

Spain crush Italy to win historic Euro 2012 crownSpain confirmed their status as one of the greatest national teams in football history by overwhelming Italy 4-0 in Sundays Euro 2012 final in Kiev to retain their European crownRead More[category Sport]

Funeral Industry Laws Face A Changing Marketplace

A law in Louisiana stopped monks at St. Joseph Abbey from selling their wood caskets in the state. That law is just one of dozens of antiquated and possibly monopolistic laws that pervade the nation's funeral industry and for the first time in decades, the laws are facing new scrutiny as consumers become more aware of their rights.Read More[category World]

Spain Crushes Italy In Euro 2012 Final

Goals from David Silva and Jordi Alba in the first half gave Spain a convincing lead. Fernando Torres and fellow substitute Juan Mata added late goals. The win in the European Championship final Sunday extends Spain's reign as the best team in world soccer.Read More[category World]

Golf: Irish Open joy for Donaldson

Jamie Donaldson claimed the first European Tour title of his career with a resounding four-stroke victory at the Irish Open on Sunday.Read More[category Sport]

Euro 2012 final: Spain v Italy - in pictures

The best images of the tournament's finale as Spain look to win a third major trophy in succession while Italy hunt a first since 2006

Jonny Weeks

Read More [category Sport][tags Euro 2012, Spain, Italy, Football, Sport]

From Our Readers: Alien Vs. Internet Memes

According to our readers, decisive leadership in the case of an alien invasion is the thing of memes.Read More[category World]

Mancini plays down Van Persie link

Roberto Mancini has played down talk of Arsenal captain Robin van Persie joining Manchester City this summerRead More[category Sport]

Turkey scrambles jets as Syrian choppers near border

Turkey scrambled fighter jets three separate times Saturday as Syrian helicopters neared the border between the two countries, Turkey's military said Sunday.Read More[category World]

Wenger turned off by Spain

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has joined the growing band who believe Spain have become a boring teamRead More[category Sport]

Cycling: Newcomer Sagan sparkles

Peter Sagan of Slovakia marked his debut in the Tour de France by winning the first stage of this year's race in Seraing Sunday.Read More[category Sport]

Fans gather ahead of Euro final

Fan parks in Spain and Italy start to fill up ahead of Sunday's Euro 2012 final in Kiev, Ukraine.Read More[category Sport]

Villas-Boas poised to take Spurs reins

• Portuguese to sign three-year contract at White Hart Lane
• Hurried reshaping of Spurs squad expected to follow

Tottenham Hotspur expect to unveil André Villas-Boas as their manager this week and his appointment is set to spark a frenzied period of transfer activity at White Hart Lane in preparation for the new Premier League season.

Negotiations are ongoing with Villas‑Boas and his representative but are considered close to resolution. The Portuguese is now contractually free to take up the reins at another English club following his dismissal as Chelsea manager in March. It is anticipated the 34-year-old will sign a three-year contract at Spurs and could be confirmed in position on Tuesday.

Villas-Boas's backroom team will include José Mario Rocha and Daniel Sousato, key members of his staff during his glittering season at Porto and his ill‑fated stint at Stamford Bridge, following the departures of Kevin Bond and Joe Jordan from the coaching team at Tottenham last week. The manager will arrive keen to re-establish his reputation having been dismissed by Chelsea nine months into a three-year deal with the team outside the Champions League places and the manager having met resistance in the dressing room for the changes he was attempting to impose.

A busy summer reshaping the squad left by Harry Redknapp awaits. Villas-Boas is expected to be followed to the club by Gylfi Sigurdsson, the goalscoring Icelandic midfielder who impressed while on loan at Swansea City for the second half of last season, from Hoffenheim for £8m. The manager also hopes to conclude deals for the Internacional midfielder Oscar dos Santos Emboaba Junior, 20, and the Belgium defender Jan Vertonghen, at around £9.5m, despite the player still negotiating the terms of his release from Ajax.

Those deals will reflect the considerable financial backing to be provided by the chairman, Daniel Levy, to ensure Spurs remain challengers next season. The club have been buoyed by Gareth Bale signing a new four-year contract worth £70,000 a week – an indication in itself that the dressing room are behind Villas-Boas's appointment – though it remains to be seen whether a deal with Manchester City for Emmanuel Adebayor can be thrashed out given the Togo forward's wage demands. He earns £170,000 a week at the Etihad Stadium, an amount Spurs cannot match.

The England striker Jermain Defoe, who endured something of a bit-part role with the club last season, will be retained but Giovanni dos Santos is due to join Malaga and Spurs are braced for a transfer request from Luka Modric, who is agitating for Champions League football, though they will resist selling the Croatia midfielder to another Premier League team. Manchester United and Chelsea have been interested and Real Madrid are also admirers. Read More [category Sport][tags Tottenham Hotspur, André Villas-Boas, Chelsea, Football, Sport]

Euro 2012: Spain and Italy leaders risk embarrassment over Belarus president

Italy has 'no plans' for contact with Alexander Lukashenko during football match amid row over Belarus human rights record

They have overlooked criticism of Ukraine's human rights record to attend the final of the European football championships in Kiev, but the prime ministers of Italy and Spain could see their visit further complicated by the presence at the stadium of Alexander Lukashenko, the pariah president of Belarus.

Italy's Mario Monti and Mariano Rajoy of Spain are flying in to watch the match after other world leaders, including David Cameron, said they would not attend the tournament in protest at the jailing of former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko for seven years for abuse of office.

Many observers consider the conviction to be politically motivated.

A spokesman for the Italian government said there was no formal EU position on whether to attend games, and that Monti was "going to support Italy just as the Spanish prime minister is going to support Spain, and just as Angela Merkel would have gone had Germany made the final".

The two leaders may risk embarrassment if they rub shoulders with Lukashenko, who has been criticised for his human rights record, is subject to EU and US sanctions, and has been invited to the game by the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych.

The Italian government official said "no contact was planned" between Monti and Lukashenko.

Lukashenko often attends meetings with world leaders with his eight-year old son Nikolai, whom he is grooming as his successor. Attending a recent meeting between his father and the Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, Nicolai appeared to be wearing a gun under his jacket.

Femen, the Ukrainian female protest group that holds topless demonstrations, has protested against Lukashenko's visit outside Kiev's Olympic stadium dressed in ski masks and wielding batons to imitate Belarus security officers.

In Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko's daughter has said her mother will be watching the final on television from the hospital where she is being held in custody. Tymoshenko would not support either team "but hopes to see a good game", her daughter Eugenia told the Italian news agency Ansa.

But she warned that Europe's politicians should not stop criticising Ukraine's democratic track record. "Politicians must put further pressure on the Yanukovich regime, even if Italy-Spain is only sport," she said.

A Ukrainian government spokesman said it was grateful to Italy and Spain for "not mixing football and politics". Read More [category Sport][tags Spain, Europe, Belarus, Yulia Tymoshenko, Alexander Lukashenko, World news, Italy, Euro 2012, Football, Human rights, European Union]

Spain v Italy – live!

• Hit F5 for the latest or use our auto-refresh button below
• Full coverage of Euro 2012 on our dedicated site
• Email your thoughts to scott.murray@guardian.co.uk

Four years and nine days ago, at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna, Cesc Fabregas whistled a penalty past Gianluigi Buffon's lugs, and Spain started to believe. The spot kick put Spain into the semi finals of Euro 2008, securing victory over bogey side Italy in a major tournament for the first time since their first-ever meeting, at the 1920 Olympics. The rest is recent history, with Spain going on to win Euro 2008, then following it up by scooping the World Cup.

Today, one way or another, Spain's journey comes full circle. If they see off Italy again, the quest is complete: they become the first country to retain the European Championship, and the first to win three major international tournaments on the bounce. But if they don't - and Italy land their second European Championship title, their first since 1968 - the story finishes with a bittersweet symmetry, an almost perfect narrative arc.

There's also a delightful role-reversal riff being played out. Spain, for years haphazard modernists, are all about control these days. Meanwhile, as they've been honing tiki-takanaccio almost to absurd perfection, the Italians, so long the masters of the dark arts of defence, have taken to sashaying around upfield in the swashbuckling style, individualists to the fore. Attackinaccio? It's all very strange, whatever it is. It's Bizarro Football.

There's one other factor to be taken into consideration, and it could have an influence on tonight's match. There's an increasing sense that while Spain are respected for their brilliance, they're rarely loved. Do they fancy winning a few hearts and minds as well as the silverware? No reason why they should care what anyone else thinks, of course - the pots are reward enough - but perhaps they fancy a few hugs, kisses and admiring glances, too? If all their talent comes out accordingly with attacking intent, we could be about to witness a signature performance, a document for the ages - the one and only thing Spain's trophy-gathering reign is lacking.

So, basically, I'm looking for a few reasons to believe this could become a stone-cold classic. Now can you blame anyone for that? Goals, please!

Kick off: 7.45pm BST, 9.45pm EEST (local time in Kyiv).

History: It's on Italy's side. They might have been knocked out of Euro 2008 by Spain, but it was only after a penalty shootout, so the official records still show that the Spanish have only registered one victory in a major finals over the Azzurri: their first-ever meeting at the 1920 Olympics. Italy responded to that loss by thrashing Spain 7-1 at the 1928 Games. They then knocked Spain out of the 1934 World Cup, the legendary Inter striker Giuseppe Meazza scoring the winner in a quarter-final replay. They beat Spain 1-0 in the Euro 88 group stages, Gianluca Vialli the scorer. And two-goal Roberto Baggio did for them in the quarter finals of the 1994 World Cup in Boston, with a little help from Julio Salinas. Not only that, when lots were drawn to decide whether Spain or Turkey would go to the 1958 World Cup, a small blindfolded boy selected the Turks. The lad was, needless to say, Italian. That victory at Euro 2008 was a load off, that's for sure.

More recent history: The well-matched 1-1 draw in the groups, three weeks ago to the day. Read More [category Sport][tags Euro 2012, Spain, Italy, Football, Sport]

BT Vision's Marc Watson: How we stole a share of the Premier League crown jewels

Chief executive reveals how pay-TV minnow snatched the rights to some of the biggest football matches from BSkyB

For the man leading BT's challenge to BSkyB's 20-year stranglehold on live Premier League football, Marc Watson seems remarkably relaxed.

The 42-year old former barrister heads BT Vision, the pay-TV minnow that has so far struggled to make an impact. Watson hopes to help change that by offering BT Vision subscribers 38 live Premier League matches a season from 2013, including almost half the games between top sides such as Manchester United and Chelsea, as part of a three-year deal worth £738m.

Watson was a member of the small group of BT executives who plotted the telecoms giant's dramatic entry into the top tier of live football last month. No rival, and certainly not one with such deep pockets as BT, has established such a foothold since Sky won its first Premier League rights deal in 1992.

If BT had got its way, it would have been a knockout blow. "We'd have taken more games at the right price," says Watson, the closest he comes to admitting that BT submitted an eye-watering £2bn-plus bid to take the lion's share of matches away from BSkyB. "For the first time in history the Premier League sold the first-pick matches, the crown jewels, to someone other than Sky. We had a plan and we stuck to the plan. As a company we were pretty calm. We were never panicking and were confident in what we were going to do.We understood the risks and benefits and approached it with calm confidence – that is not to say arrogance."

This confidence was fuelled in part by the fact that the BT bid team was being advised by Tony Ball, a non-executive director. Ball, a former BSkyB chief executive with knowledge of previous Premier League rights bidding tussles, provided strategic insight into the commitment necessary to challenge the satellite broadcaster's hegemony.

"There were no false moustaches," says Watson, "but we had one advantage in being able to approach the auction undercover. Had our position been public … I'm not sure we would have got the outcome we did."

BT's secrecy worked well enough, with the company's bid only becoming public the day the Premier League revealed the winners of the rights auction. However, industry sources claim BSkyB was not caught completely off-guard, with the satellite broadcaster aware that at least one other major bidder was in the market (speculation focused on deep-pocketed al-Jazeera).

Watson joined BT Vision in 2007, having previously been a sports rights specialist. He spent seven years as a shareholder and director in the TV strategy and sports rights consultancy Reel Enterprises, now part of the US company Wasserman Media. Reel is a longstanding adviser to the Premier League in its rights negotiations and Watson found himself on the other side of the table from former colleagues.

He had never worked on the Premier League business at Reel but he did deals for the Football League and Scottish Premier League, which he negotiated with the now-defunct Setanta, as well as selling the European TV rights to the 2010 Winter Olympics and London 2012 Olympic Games to the European Broadcasting Union.

Before that he spent three years as Richard Desmond's general counsel in the late 1990s, when he helped OK! to overtake its arch-rival Hello! by inking the then record $1m contract for snaps of Michael Jackson's first baby, followed by the first-ever £1m picture deal, for the rights to David Beckham's wedding.

BT Vision, which marries Freeview with on-demand content via broadband, has not been the success envisioned when Watson's predecessor unveiled it as a rival to Sky six years ago and predicted 3 million subscribers by 2010.

BT has invested an estimated £800m in Vision to date, managing to attract just over 700,000 pay-TV subscribers, compared with more than 10 million for Sky and Virgin Media's 3.8 million.

However, Watson denies that the Premier League deal is boom or bust for BT Vision. "I reject even the basis of that question," he says. "There was a time when that was quite fair [to ask if BT Vision should be shut], not now. The business launched with great ambition but it turned out to be a much tougher marketplace, especially for content, than we thought it would be. Content is king and getting deals is difficult, that is indisputable."

BT intends to launch a Premier League channel that it will offer to rivals, although some observers believe that the company should turn the tables on Rupert Murdoch and keep it off Sky. Then, because it already has Sky's sports channels, BT Vision would be able to market itself as being the only place to watch all live Premier League matches.

However, Watson says he is keeping an open mind. "That is an option [not offering the channel to Sky], but it is early days, we are considering all options," he says. "Having games like these gives you options. We have had a lot of calls in the last few weeks. My instinctive view is to look to make it widely available, but we will see."

BT will have to spend up to £100m on production, according to one City analyst, on top of what it paid for the rights to match Sky's slick coverage, and Watson says that he has a "full inbox" of CVs from would-be presenters.

BT's move to challenge Sky on live football comes several years after the satellite broadcaster began moving into the telecoms giant's own core businesses of telephony and broadband.

BSkyB has used its investment in content, starting with football and movies, but now extending to high-end drama, to eat into core BT markets such as broadband by bundling packages of products with its pay-TV service. Since launching its broadband offering in 2006, Sky has attracted 3.9 million customers, close to being the third-largest internet service provider in the UK, with BT the market leader on 6.3 million.

"Lots of customers are happy to take calls and broadband but many, many want triple play, TV services as well," says Watson. "It is very important we play in this space. [The Premier League deal] should be seen as a statement of intent to protect and grow our retail business in the UK."

Watson also believes that the timing is right to launch the first new BT Vision set-top box since 2007, and add new pay-TV channels on the service from providers including UKTV and National Geographic. He is also looking forward to the imminent, if belated, arrival of YouView, which will finally get some set-top boxes in shops later in July.

"[YouView] absolutely still has the potential to be a game-changer in the market," he says. "The long-term success is much more important than it launching for the London Olympics. We are relaxed about the timing of YouView."

Previous challengers to Sky's Premier League rights dominance, such as On Digital and Setanta, could not match its financial muscle – and didn't last the course. BT, with a £2.4bn pre-tax profit last year on revenues of £19.3bn (compared to Sky's £1bn and £6.5bn), is a different proposition altogether.

However, Watson still argues that the rival broadcaster has too much power in the TV sports market. He believes that competition regulators did not go far enough in 2010 when BSkyB was forced to offer Sky Sports 1 and 2 to rivals at better wholesale rates, allowing it to make more money when selling packages to customers.

"If you want balance you have to have the right regulatory framework and the playing field is not as level as it should be," he says. "The wholesale must-supply deal for Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 is important in our thinking too. It has not gone as well as perhaps we hoped it might. It lacks Sky Sports 3 and Sky Sports 4 and we are really not happy with the pricing, it needs to allow us a better retail price and make for better margins. It has gone OK but it has not changed the dynamic of the market."

Watson jokes that he has worked out that his Luton Town has an infinitesimally small chance of making it to the Premier League in time for matches to be aired on BT Vision before the end of the three-year deal in 2016.

But he is less forthcoming about whether he will be drawn into another bidding war in the next Premier League rights auction. "Can you ask me that in three years, I'll probably answer it then," he quips, adding: "We are right at the beginning of a four-year journey, we need to demonstrate we can make a good job of this." Read More [category Sport][tags Sports rights, BT, Telecommunications industry, Business, Media, Television industry, Sport, BSkyB, Premier League]

Mid-Atlantic Power Outages Could Last Days

Millions of people in the regions are facing a second day of 100-degree temperatures without modern conveniences like air conditioning and refrigeration. The power outage followed a storm late Friday that toppled massive trees onto cars and blocked roads.Read More[category World]

Residents To Tour Areas Destroyed By Colo. Fire

Many will find their homes among the nearly 350 burned to the ground. About 10,000 people remained evacuated, down from more than 30,000 at the peak of the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs.Read More[category World]

Chinese manufacturing continues to slump

China's manufacturing sector is still expanding, but barely.Read More[category Money]

Golf: Woods in hunt at stormy AT&T

Brendon de Jonge is on course for a maiden PGA Tour victory after seizing a one-stroke lead in the third round of the storm-hit AT&T National at the Congressional Country Club in Maryland.Read More[category Sport]

Jobs to provide fireworks on Wall Street

Investors are heading into a new month, new quarter and new half of the year this week with a lot to chew on.Read More[category Money]

Mexico set to pick new president

Mexicans headed to the polls to vote Sunday in what officials have called "the largest and most complex election day" in the country's history.Read More[category World]

Clinton: World may not succeed in Syria

There is no guarantee that a sweeping new international agreement on Syria will succeed in ending the conflict there, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conceded, as opposition activists said the number of dead had skyrocketed in recent months.Read More[category World]

Hong Kong Speaks 'Truth' To New Man In Power

China's President Hu Jintao has sworn in a new leader for Hong Kong, amid large public protests. The island is marking the 15th anniversary of its return to Chinese sovereignty at a time when mistrust toward China is at its highest level since Hong Kong's handover in 1997.Read More[category World]

Mexicans Vote With Drug War As Backdrop

Mexico is electing a new president Sunday, and voters appear ready to reject the ruling party led by outgoing President Felipe Calderon because many Mexicans believe his anti-drug campaign has done more harm than good. Guest host David Greene speaks with NPR's Carrie Kahn about the politics.Read More[category World]

'There Is No Austerity In Fashion,' Or In Paris

France seems a peaceful island in the debt storm that rages in Europe. As NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports, there have been no cutbacks to speak of, and people, especially in the glittering city of Paris, continue to enjoy the good life.Read More[category World]

Euro Finals Kick Up Age-Old Rivalries

About 250 million people will tune in Sunday to watch Italy and Spain duke it out in the Euro 2012 final in Kiev. As always with European soccer, this battle has laid bare more than just skills on the field. Guest host David Greene talks with ESPN's Roger Bennett about the national undercurrents.Read More[category World]

Colorado Fire Victims Switch To Recovery Mode

Everyone who lost a home to the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado seems to have a story about stuff: the stuff they grabbed as they fled, the treasures they forgot to pack. Colorado Public Radio's Megan Verlee reports on what it means to start over.Read More[category World]

Firefighting Planes Battle Wildfires And Old Age

Many of the planes used by the U.S. Forest Service to combat wildfires were made shortly after World War II. The recent deaths of two Idaho pilots have brought the safety of the aging and shrinking air fleet into question.Read More[category World]

College Playoffs Could Be 'Festival Of Football'

College presidents have agreed to a playoff system for big time college football. Guest host David Greene gets NPR's Mike Pesca's this development in college football.Read More[category World]

A Musical Interlude On The Campaign Trail

When Time columnist Joe Klein travels the country covering politics, he likes to bring an extra set of ears. His recent road trip with musician Ry Cooder led him to an impromptu and apolitical jam session.Read More[category World]

Obamacare, Romneycare And The Politics In Between

Since the Supreme Court's ruling that essentially the Affordable Care Act, it's been hard to separate substance from rhetoric. The 5-4 vote in the Supreme Court is now front and center in the presidential campaign. Host David Greene talks with NPR's Mara Liasson about whether it's likely to remain a defining issue in the weeks and months ahead.Read More[category World]

Fast Food Hoax In Alaska Leads To A Feast

Recently, people in the small western town of Bethel, Alaska, got very excited when they saw flyers announcing the opening of a Taco Bell. But then, residents got the sad news: the flyers were a hoax. But the people of Bethel will not go taco-less.Read More[category World]

Election Gives Little Hope To Embattled Juarez

From member station KJZZ, Monica Ortiz Uribe reports on the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, where residents fear the presidential election will not bring an end to the violence.Read More[category World]

Clinton: 'Everyone' Is Worried About Syria

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is back in Washington after a long day of negotiating over Syria Saturday. The watered-down agreement was quickly dismissed by the Syrian rebels. NPR's Michele Kelemen spoke with Clinton before she boarded her flight home.Read More[category World]

Red Cross: Kenya church attacks kill 16 near Somali border

Explosions targeting two churches in Kenya near the Somali border killed at least 16 people, the Red Cross said, in the latest spate of attacks on the East African nation.Read More[category World]

Euro 2012 final build-up – live!

• Press refresh or turn on the auto-update for the latest
• Email james.riach.casual@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts
• Or tweet James if that's your thing
• Keep up with all the latest Euro 2012 stories here

12.04pm: Remarkable story from The Times of Israel about Mario Balotelli's Jewish 'heritage'

11.53am: Read the interview with Gary Lineker in today's Observer

People have no idea how hard football is, absolutely no idea. It's all about pace.

Daniel Taylor preview's tonight's game, when Spain will look to pass their way into history...

Euro 2012 has been a success in many ways but is still waiting for its first classic match in the knockout stages. If a good tournament wants to be remembered as a great one a lot depends on what happens in the Olympic Stadium here on Sunday and whether the two finalists can conjure up the occasion the competition probably deserves.

Spain against Italy certainly has the potential after what the two teams served up, as a kind of appetiser, when they had a first look at one another during the group stages in Gdansk three weeks ago. Spain demonstrated that night, as they have before and since, that they will almost certainly dominate the possession, but there are legitimate reasons for Italy to deduce that the holders can be at least vaguely susceptible to the right combination of smothering tactics and quick, incisive attacking.

11.19am: Who thinks Spain are boring? Have a read of this if you are in that camp

11.03am: Will Mario Balotelli be taking his shirt off tonight? Here's a replica celebration from Ken Tokura in Japan, doesn't quite have the same physique does he? Thanks to Ben Newman for that.

10.54am: The big question you must all ask yourself as we head towards the 7.45pm kick-off: ITV or BBC?

10.37am: Here's the full story on Seedorf, who looks destined never to grace the Premier League

10.28am: I suppose there is no better way to kick things off than with some unrelated transfer news ... Clarence Seedorf has joined Brazilian club Botafogo on a two-year deal, West Ham have signed George McCartney and Fulham striker Orlando Sa has left by mutual consent

10.19am: Morning all, hope we are all ready for nine hours of thrilling build-up ahead of tonight's finale, I know I'm raring to go...

James wil be here shortly with all the latest build-up and new before the Euro 2012 final between Spain and Italy.

In the meantime, here's Scott Murray on six great European Championship finals.

1) USSR 2-1 Yugoslavia (1960)

The infant European Nations Cup was all about the Soviets. They flew out of the blocks in the very first qualification game, Anatoli Ilyin scoring after four minutes against Hungary in front of a 100,000-plus crowd in Moscow's fancy new Central Stadium, and never looked back. They were 3-0 up by the 32nd minute, eventually winning the game 3-1. For the second leg in Budapest, Hungary brought back a couple of superannuated Magical Magyars in Gyula Grosics and József Bozsik, and a young star-to-be in Florian Albert, but the Soviets were still too good, and registered a 1-0 win.

In the quarters, Spain's right-wing dictator General Franco claimed full marks for irony, rolling out the red carpet to allow the USSR to saunter straight through to the semis. Whereupon an impressive Czechoslovakian side starring Josef Masopust were dispatched 3-0 in a sweltering Marseille, a lopsided result in which the Russian keeper Lev Yashin was reportedly his side's star man, despite Valentin Ivanov's two goals.

The final at the Parc des Princes in Paris would not be such a showcase of goalkeeping magnificence. Yugoslavia had the better of the first half, Milan Galic at the heart of everything, switching play this way and that in the middle, swinging in dangerous crosses from the left, and eventually scoring the opener, stooping to head a right-wing cross inside the near post on 43 minutes. Yashin, hanging around by the aforementioned upright, should have thrown his cap on it, but didn't, and rocked back on his heels, punch drunk after the mistake, gaddered on incompetence. Admittedly the legendary keeper otherwise had something of a stormer, superbly saving a couple of Bora Kostic free-kicks, but this was up there with Egon Loy's standing-around-smoking-a-fag display at the European Cup final a couple of months earlier.

But anything Yashin could do badly, his opposite number Blagoja Vidinic could do worse. Just after the restart, Vidinic spilled a low, hard but ultimately speculative shot from the dangerous Valentin Bubukin. Slava Metreveli was on hand to sweep home the loose ball. The match went into extra time, and with seven minutes to go, Mikheil Meskhi clipped in a cross from the left which Vidinic went walkabout to claim. He got nowhere near it, and Slava Metreveli guided a header back past the lost keeper and into the top-left corner.

Had the better team prevailed? With Yugoslavia having slipped it around slickly, it's not clear that they did. But the USSR were a staunch outfit, and having started the ball rolling back in 1959, it was somehow fitting that they were the first team to pick up the Henri Delaunay Trophy. Wearing the greatest kit in the history of football – CCCP proudly across the chest, as bold as the Caucasus mountains – as they did so.

Read the full story here. Read More [category Sport][tags Euro 2012, Italy, Spain, Football, Sport]

Clarence Seedorf joins Brazilian side Botafogo on two-year deal

• Thirty-six-year-old ended 10-year spell with Milan this summer
• Botafogo claim most lucrative deal for a foreign player in Brazil

The former Holland international Clarence Seedorf has joined the Brazilian side Botafogo on a two-year-deal.

The Surinam-born 36-year-old, who ended a 10-year spell at Milan this summer and had reportedly been interesting the Premier League side West Ham, has been given what Botafogo claim is the most lucrative deal ever handed out to a foreign player in Brazil.

The club announced the deal in a statement which read: "Botafogo have formalised a contract with the Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf, who is 36.

"Seedorf has signed a deal for two years with Botafogo."

It continued: "It is the biggest contract for a foreigner made by a Brazilian football club."

Rio de Janeiro-based Botafogo sit eighth in the Campeonato Brasileiro with three wins from six matches. Read More [category Sport][tags Botafogo, Transfer window, Milan, Football, Sport]

Syrian Opposition Rejects U.N. Peace Plan

Opposition groups called the plan for a political transition ambiguous and a waste of time. At Russia's insistence, the United Nations-brokered agreement left the door open to Syria's president being part of the interim administration.Read More[category World]

Casillas reflects on Spain journey

Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas admitted he still has difficulty taking in the scale of his achievements with the national team over the last four yearsRead More[category Sport]

Japan Restarts Nuclear Plant As Safety Fears Linger

The plant is the first to go back online since Japan shut down all of its reactors following the Fukushima nuclear disaster. There is deep division in public opinion about the use of nuclear power, and protesters shouted at the gates of the plant Sunday.Read More[category World]

Asian New Yorkers See Rising Star In Grace Meng

Earlier this week, Taiwanese-American attorney Grace Meng easily won the Democratic primary for New York's newly-redrawn 6th Congressional District. If Meng wins the general election in November, she'll become the first Asian-American member of New York's Congressional delegation.Read More[category World]

Defeated Democrats Find 'Vindication In Spades' In High Court's Health Care Ruling

A new study says 13 congressional Democrats lost their seats in 2010 chiefly because they voted for the health care law. Today, they says they're pleased with the Supreme Court's move to uphold it. But will that help some of them regain their seats?Read More[category World]

In 'Sponge Candy Crescent,' Addicts Hoard 'Heaven'

During the long winter months on the eastern shore of Lake Erie, sponge candy is a mainstay. But the temperamental treat isn't available in hot weather, so to get their fix in the summer, sponge candy lovers have to plan in advance.Read More[category World]

Ahead Of Alaska Drilling, Shell Practices Cleaning Up

Royal Dutch Shell could drill several exploratory oil wells into the waters off the north shore of Alaska this summer. The potential prize is huge, but so is the risk, should there be an oil spill in the pristine and remote region. So Shell is recruiting locals and training them to confront oil in icy waters.Read More[category World]

Swimmer abandons Cuba-U.S. challenge

A 49-year-old grandmother who wanted to become the first person to swim 103 miles from Cuba to the Florida Keys unassisted ended her bid early Sunday morning when a strong current in the shark-infested waters made it "impossible" for her to continue, her team said.Read More[category World]

Gerrard: Don't blame Wayne

Captain Steven Gerrard believes it is unfair to blame Wayne Rooney for Englands Euro 2012 exitRead More[category Sport]

US judge bans sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus phone during Apple trial, follows tablet ban

U.S. District Court judge says the Galaxy Nexus smartphone "likely" infringes on Apple patents and bans sales of the device. Read More [category Mobile]