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Spain rampant on route to final (27/6/2008 9:23:47 πμ)
Spain lived up to the all the hype and potential when they crushed Russia 3-0 to reach the Euro 2008 final last night.
Goals from Xavi, Dani Guiza and David Silva sent Spain through to Sunday's final where they will meet pre-tournament favourites Germany.
For Russia, it was the end of a positive tournament, in which they emerged from the group phases of a major tournament for the first time and for their manager Guus Hiddink, it was the third time he had fallen at the semi-final stage of a major tournament.
Spain came into the game as slight favourites, but most people believed Russia would make a game of it, especially if they could reproduce the kind of performance that saw off Holland in the quarter-finals, unfortunately they couldn't.
The first-half produced little in the way of clear-cut opportunities as both teams wrestled for control in midfield.
Spain slightly came out on top and maybe could have led if Fernando Torres had managed to convert one of a succession of half chances.
The result possibly ended up hinging on the injury suffered by David Villa, who was replaced just passed the half hour by Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas.
And Fabregas was instrumental in all that followed his introduction.
Spain took the lead five minutes into the second half when Xavi reacted well to direct Andres Iniesta's shot come cross through the legs of Igor Akinfeev.
Russia seeked a way back into the game but they struggled to get a foothold in the game, star-player Andrei Arshavin failed to turn up and top-scorer Roman Pavlyuchenko was starved of any great opportunities.
Spain's one touch passing was always going to open up the Russians again and the last 20 minutes became the Fabregas show.
Firstly, he lifted a sublime first time ball over the Russian defence to allow Guiza, who had only been on the pitch a matter of minutes, the simple task of lifting the ball over Akinfeev.
And with eight minutes remaining Fabregas broke down the left and timed his ball into the middle perfectly to allow Silva to complete the victory.
Yesterday's victory coupled with Germany's unimpressive performance in their semi-final win over Turkey, has seen the Spanish put in as favourites to win Euro 2008.
Spain are 1.60 to lift the trophy with the Germans at 2.25.
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