Sweden 1 - 2 Spain

 Another match with a late goal in Euro 2008 and this time it proved to be a winner by David Villa. Congratulations to Spain on a good hard fought win.

 Spain started the game better as Sweden were happy to sit back and they were punished when David Silva found Fernando Torres who gave Spain the lead with a close range shot. Sweden woke up at last and the trio of Elmander, Ibrahimovic, and Larsson all came close. Puyol got injured which caused a problem to the Spanish side as they came into the tournament with a big question mark about their defence. A few minutes later, Ibrahimovic scored the equalizer after he held off the challenge of Sergio Ramos and his shot went past Casillas, who could have done better, into the net. Should Spain have had a penalty towards the end of the half when Elmander bumped into Silva? I've seen worse claims given as a penalty before, and if it was up to me I would give one here too.

 Big turning point before the start of the 2nd half was the substitution of Ibrahimovic for Rosenberg. It really affected how Sweden approached the second half. Zlatan just puts fear into any defence in the world, and without him Sweden had no spark. It was all Spain in a slow paced 2nd half. Isaksson made a couple of great saves off Silva and Villa to deny Spain a second goal. Spain didn't look very dangerous after that, and Sweden looked to be happy with a draw and their defence went to sleep in the 92nd minute. A long ball found Villa who took it past Hansson and produced a clinical finish to score the game winner.

 My man of the match: David Villa (just for scoring the winner)

 Both teams underperformed. I expected a better match. Interesting how the 3 Barcelona players (Puyol, Iniesta, and Xavi) were all substituted. Today's match proved how big of an effect does Ibrahimovic have on Sweden's team. Without him, they're just a normal side.