 The Olympic Stadium in Kyiv hosted the final. | |||||||
| Event | UEFA Euro 2012 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Date | 1 July 2012 | ||||||
| Venue | Olympic Stadium, Kyiv | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Andrés Iniesta (Spain) | ||||||
| Referee | Pedro Proença (Portugal) | ||||||
| Attendance | 63,170 | ||||||
| Weather | Clear night 26 °C (79 °F) 42% humidity[1] | ||||||
The UEFA Euro 2012 final was the final match of Euro 2012, the fourteenth edition of the European Championship, UEFA's competition for national football teams. The match was played at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 1 July 2012, and was contested between defending champions Spain and Italy.
The sixteen-team tournament began with a group stage, from which eight teams qualified for the knockout stage. En route to the final, Spain finished top of Group C, with a draw against Italy and wins over Croatia and the Republic of Ireland. Spain then defeated France in the quarter-finals, and Portugal in the semi-finals on penalties. Italy were second in Group C, with draws against Spain and Croatia, and a victory over the Republic of Ireland. In the knockout stage, Italy defeated England on penalties in the quarter-finals, and Germany in the semi-finals. This was thus the fourth time that teams who played each other in the group stage faced off again in the Euro final (after 1988, 1996 and 2004).
The final took place in front of 63,170 supporters, and was refereed by Pedro Proença from Portugal. Spain won the match 4–0, the greatest margin of victory in European Championship final history, earning a joint-record third title and becoming the first team to win two consecutive European Championships. Spain's Andrés Iniesta was named as UEFA's man of the match.
Spain also became the first team to win three consecutive major tournaments (following Euro 2008 and the 2010 FIFA World Cup), all without conceding a single goal in the knockout stage.[2][3] Usually, the winners of the European Championship gain entry to the FIFA Confederations Cup, which was played in Brazil in 2013. However, since Spain had already qualified as the 2010 World Cup champions, runners-up Italy qualified automatically as the UEFA representative.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
esp-ita_line-upswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cox, Michael (19 October 2019). "Michael Cox's Iconic Teams of the Decade: Del Bosque's Spain suffocate their opponents with possession". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
- ^ Lowe, Sid (2 July 2012). "Euro 2012: Spain seal their place in history with Italy's destruction". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 June 2024.