Monday 30 June 2008
The UEFA Technical Team has named its UEFA EURO 2008™ Team of
the Tournament, with no fewer than nine Spanish players being
picked in the final 23.
Team breakdown
The nine-strong group of experienced football technicians who have
followed every game at the tournament decided the selection
– and the success of Luis Aragonés's side was underlined by
the fact nine Spain players made the cut, with the remainder of the
squad comprising three players from runners-up Germany, four
from Russia, two each from the Netherlands and Portugal and a
single player representing Turkey, Croatia and Italy.
'Not about reputations'
UEFA technical director Andy Roxburgh said: "The Team of the
Tournament is something we put into our technical report for our
coaching colleagues. We give them pointers on the players that our
technical experts have appreciated during this event. This team is
very much self-contained in terms of the tournament – this is
not about reputations. In fact there are only four players in here
who were in our UEFA Champions League team of the competition. It's
all very much about the performances in this competition. We
haven't included anybody who was knocked out in the group
phase."
UEFA EURO 2008™ Team of the Tournament
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Iker Casillas
(Spain), Edwin van der Sar (Netherlands).
Defenders: Bosingwa (Portugal), Philipp Lahm
(Germany), Carlos Marchena (Spain), Pepe (Portugal), Carles Puyol
(Spain), Yuri Zhirkov (Russia).
Midfielders: Hamit Altıntop (Turkey), Luka
Modrić (Croatia), Marcos Senna (Spain), Xavi Hernández (Spain),
Konstantin Zyryanov (Russia), Michael Ballack (Germany), Cesc
Fàbregas (Spain), Andrés Iniesta (Spain), Lukas Podolski (Germany),
Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands).
Forwards: Andrei Arshavin (Russia), Roman
Pavlyuchenko (Russia), Fernando Torres (Spain), David Villa
(Spain).