UEFA Euro championship lineups through history (2008)

Final phase held in Austria and in Switzerland in Vienna (incl. the Final), Salzburg, Innsbruk, Klagenfurt, Basel, Bern, Zurich, and Geneva.

16 teams.

Winner, Spain, "La Roja" :

SPAIN 2008

As they lined in the Final. Iniesta and Silva could of course make it a sort of 4-3-3, but the formation consisted before all of a compact block at midfield, which really worked as a unit, both on an offensive point of view or at the defensive level, at the recuperation : by their collective moves, with in addition Senna as the real defensive midfielder (with a very good quality of pass at the same time) into that unit, or placed between the defense and the midfield.

David Villa (striker) missed the Final due to injury. Before the match for the title (against Germany), him and Torres constitued the duo of attack. Villa has been replaced for the occasion by the usual substitute midfielder (and often decisive) Fabregas. The type of formation used by Spain before the Final was no more no less than a 4-4-2.

Runner-up, Germany :

Germany 2008

 Same team that played the World Cup 2 years earlier on home soil (for a third place).

Semi-finalists :

Russia, beaten by Spain : 

Russia 2008

 A team with a particularly offensive left-back in Zhirkov (one of the revelations of the tournament).

Beaten by Germany, Turkey :

Turkey 2008

The veteran defender Servet was out of the team at the end of the group stage. Mehmet Aurélio (midfielder) was suspended for the quarter-finals (against Croatia). Hamit Altintop was the right wing of the team - Sabri is a defender placed at midfield. Other strikers who were likely to enter, as they incidentally did in the quarter-finals, were Semih Şentürk and, more of a winger, Karadeniz.

Plus...

Croatia, beaten by Turkey in the quarter-finals : 

Croatia 2008

 With also the strikers Mladen Petrić and Ivan Klasnić who entered in the quarter-finals. Klasnić even opened the score in the last minute of extra-time for his team, him who was just back on the fields after a complicated disease. But Turkey scored an equalizer in the last seconds of the additional time of extra-time and won it on penalties.

And also, The Netherlands, that could not being not one of the favorites after a very mastered first round (with 3 large victories against Italy, France and Romania) but finally clashed with Russia in the quarter-finals (1-3). 

The Netherlands 2008

Half of a surprise maybe? This defeat.

The two other quarter-finalists that remain (not presented) are Portugal and Italy.