it was too many factors that just werent in italys favour. the most important beeing how tired italy was from the start. Spain had an extra day of rest and also easier matches. I hate the tika-taka football, and find it booring as hell. i understand how it is effective especially in a tournament like euro. Imo it should simply not be allowed to pass the ball back as often as spain and barca do. in other sports like handball its a rule that prevents passive play, as it ruins the sport. If all teams started playing like barca/spain, football would suck so much. Just fuck spain!!
You are absolutely correct that Spain's fitness level was superior to Italy's, but it has nothing to do with the extra day rest and an easier schedule (they had France and extra-time vs Portugal). The Italians were exhausted. They just gave their all physically and mentally to reach the finals. They had to compensate the lack of quality with much more running.
This gets me back to Osman's post from some pages back. Barca are indeed superior to Juve, but tonight's match won't be repeated if Barca plays Juve. Juve will definitely have much better fitness than Italy tonight and we almost surely won't have nerve wrecking knock out matches less than a week before the match vs Barca. We will lose most probably, but a Barca-Juve will be more like Spain-Italy in the groups than Spain-Italy in the final.
