This will forever be recalled as Spain's era, unrivalled by any team. Forty-four years it took them to win a major tournament. In four years they have won two more. No other team have retained this trophy and yet at times it felt as if winning this tournament was an obligation; winning it well was an obligation, too. Spain fulfilled both brilliantly. Fernando Torres scored in this final just as he scored against Germany in 2008. It was Spain's third and it gave him the tournament's Golden Boot. Juan Mata came on for his first minutes of the tournament. He scored with his first touch – 12 goals scored, one conceded.
Spain's era began with a penalty shoot- out against Italy in 2008. It was only the quarter-final but the Spanish had finally broken a barrier that had stood before them for 24 years, one that had seemed insuperable. Spain feared Italy, the team that many liked to portray as everything Spain were not: dirty, cynical, boring … successful. Even Torres later said of the quarter-final: "That was the night that we won the European Championship."
This was the night that they won it again. Torres scored again. Now it is Spain who are insuperable. No one has ever won three major tournaments in a row. As Iker Casillas had admitted, there would never again be anything like 2008 and 2010.
"It is different," he said on the eve of this game – 2008 had been the explosion, success at last 44 years later but 2010 was "nervous" – first Europe, then the world. "Success debilitates you but we have been lucky that we have good players who have not lost their competitive spirit," Vicente del Bosque said.
That side of Spain's game is often forgotten. "It is not enough," Del Bosque says, "to have talent." Yet Spain have talent, so much of it that just competing, achieving something unique, has been treated as if it is not enough.
Here it was not just the fact that they won but the way they won. There was a sensation that Spain needed a final like this. Different demands are made of great teams, debates sparked. "Tournaments," said Del Bosque, "always concentrate debate and tension. It's impossible to win over everyone all of the time." Those debates have been destroyed. Did anyone remain unconvinced on Sunday night? Spain were not just better; they were brilliant.
They had the lead inside 14 minutes and never looked like relinquishing it. Andrés Iniesta's pass was slotted diagonally into the area for a run from Cesc Fábregas. He got to the byline and pulled it back for David Silva, racing in from deep to head home. It was Silva's second goal of the competition; he also has three assists. Like Spain's goal against Italy in their opening game, it was also an expression of what Del Bosque seeks with a striker-less formation. There is no fixed point; instead there is combination, control, mobility, unpredictability, players arriving not waiting.
Asked whether he would play an attacker before the match, Del Bosque had replied: "I'll play three of them." "Yes," came the retort, "but will any of them be No9s?" "People who can create and score goals," the Spain coach said. When Silva headed in, Spain had taken five shots already. They had begun with speed, moving the ball with intensity and intent. Now they were 1-0 up.
Italy had already played their part before the goal and they sought the equaliser after it. They had not come simply to stop Spain. Casillas was forced to intervene on a couple of occasions. "Of course the games are not as good when [only] one team try to attack and the other team defend," Iniesta had said. Here Italy attacked. And so did Spain. If control was harder to find, spaces appeared; the game was longer, less compressed. There was space in front of the Italian defence; space behind it too. Spain had not finished with less than half the possession since the final four years ago. Italy had 53% of the ball in the first half. Spain had two goals.
For a man whose position has been questioned constantly, Fábregas's impact on this tournament has been huge. Xavi's, on the other hand, had not been. "I would have liked to have been more transcendental than I have been," he admitted on the eve of the final. The remark is all the more striking because he is the man who perhaps embodies best of all the style that has made Spain different. In Kiev it was a different story. With Iniesta he took central stage again, always involved, his passing crisp and clever. He had space ahead of him, runners too. That had largely been denied him during this championship.
Shortly before the interval that runner was Jordi Alba. Spain may play without strikers but Alvaro Arbeloa has had more touches in the opposition penalty area than any other defender here and now it was Alba, one of the stand out performers of Spain's championship, who bombed forward. Once a member of the front three, he had been converted by the Valencia coach Unai Emery into a full-back. But Alba, who this week confirmed that he is returning to Barcelona, where he started out as a teenager, has not forgotten his roots. The interception happened deep inside his own half. A first-time touch inside and off he went on a run. Five yards, 10, 20, 30, 40, faster and faster. As he screeched past the last defender, the ball appeared ahead of him, perfectly weighted by Xavi. A touch to control was followed by a tidy finish.
"If we can crush them, we crush them," Luis Aragonés told his players at Euro 2008. That Spain do not has been one of the accusations most often levelled at them here. "Those people who think we are playing boring... in my opinion they don't understand the game," Fábregas said. "This feels really amazing, one of the best days of my life. I don't think we're ready to see what we have done yet. Three major trophies in a row has never been done before in the history of football."
They crushed Italy, not any team but Italy. This was the defining game and Spain can now be defined only with ever-increasing superlatives. Iniesta said: "We gave our best performance in the last game. This is unrepeatable." Torres slotted past Gianluigi Buffon, then Mata finished too. And the night ended with the centre-back, Sergio Ramos, attempting to score with a back-heel from three yards out. Four goals were enough – four.
