Uefa have chosen Barça's Xavi Hernandez best player of Euro 2008. After his superb performances throughout the tournament, especially in the semi-final and final I believe that he thoroughly deserves it. Congratulations Xavi, let's hope you can keep up the form for Barça next season. Uefa also named a list of the best 23 players which also includes Carles Puyol and Andres Iniesta, while there is no place for Cristiano Ronaldo. The 23 are: Casillas, Buffon, Van der Sar, Marchena, Puyol, Bosingwa, Pepe, Lahm, Zhirkov, Senna, Xavi, Zyryanov, Modric, Altintop, Fabregás, Iniesta, Ballack, Podolski, Sneijder, Villa, Torres, Arshavin, Pavlyuchenko.

A goal after 33minutes from Fernando Torres was enough to give Spain a thoroughly deserved victory in tonight's Euro 2008 final. A great through pass from Barça's Xavi Hernandez gave Torres the chance to show his speed as he outpaced Phillip Lahm to nick the ball skillfully over the advancing Jens Lehmann. It was fitting that Xavi and Torres should combine for the goal as they were the two best players on the pitch tonight.

Torres was a constant threat and he nearly put Spain ahead when he headed sergio Ramos's cross onto the base of the post after 22 minutes. Germany only really threatened in the first ten minutes but once Spain settled in their class began to show. In the second half Spain almost equalled the performance against Russia in the semi final and rarely looked threatened. Ramos, Inies...

A magnificent second half display from the Spanish team blew away Russia by three goals to nil and Spain must now be fancied to beat Germany in Sunday's final. Barça's Xavi Hernandez put Spain on the road to victory when he met Iniesta's cross to side foot the ball under the Russian keeper.

In the first half the Spanish defence led by a superb Carles Puyol kept Pavlyuchenko and Barça target Andrei Arshavin pretty quiet, and when Pavlyuchenko did get a shot in Casillas brilliantly got his fingertips to the ball to turn it round the post. Spain had to reorganise after David Villa was forced to come off injured in the 34th minute, but the readjustment worked well for Spain with Cesc Fabregas coming on to play a free role in midfield behind Fernando Torres.

Spain got the breakthrough five mi...

Day four began with a magnificent display from Spain who thoroughly outplayed Russia to win 4-1. There were good performances from Xavi, Puyol and Iniesta but the star of the game was David Villa who scored a hat-trick. Spain began with a 4-4-2 formation with Villa and Fernando Torres up front, I have to admit I was critical of the decision as Spain have looked better in recent months playing with a five-man midfield. However, the two of them combined well and Torres set up Villa for the first goal after a fine ball from Capdevila.

Just before half time Villa got his second after a perfectly timed through pass from Iniesta and Russia were out of it by half time. In the second half Fabregas came on for Torres and Spain switched to 4-5-1, this was followed by a superb display of possession footba...

If we discount Gianluca Zambrotta who played in Italy's 3-1 win over Belgium on Friday, there were five Barça players involved in friendly internationals this weekend in preparation for Euro 2008. Puyol, Xavi and Iniesta all played in Spain's 2-1 victory over Peru, Xavi set up Spain's first goal with an excellent through ball to David Villa. Deco played the first 45 minutes of Portugal's 2-0 win over Georgia, while Thierry Henry also played the first half only of France's disappointing 0-0 draw with Paraguay. Thuram and Abidal are also in France's Euro 2008 squad but the played no part in yesterday's game.

A little late perhaps, but I've finally decided on my player of the season. Some will say his stats are not great, but even so Leo Messi has to win the award because he is quite simply head and shoulders above the rest. Only three other players can really take much credit from a generally disappointing season. Andres Iniesta is second because of his remarkable consistency and because he continues to improve, only a niggling knee injury towards the end of the season saw his level drop a bit, let's hope he gets over the problem. Third place goes to Toure Yaya whose performances in midfield had a lot to do with the improved defence in the first half of the season. His back injury had a lot to do with Barça's defensive frailty as the season wore on though he deserves tremendous credit for bravely playing on. Next i...

No big surprises today as Luis Aragones named his squad for the European Championships which start on June 7 in Switzerland and Austria. Bojan has been allowed to rest and Victor Valdés has been ignored again. I will report on how all the Barça players get on at the tournament. Spain's full squad is:

ARSENAL: Cesc

BARCELONA: Puyol, Iniesta, Xavi

BETIS: Juanito

GETAFE: De la Red

LIVERPOOL: Arbeloa, Reina, Torres, Xabi Alonso

REAL MADRID: Casillas, Sergio Ramos

MALLORCA: Fernando Navarro, Güiza

SEVILLA: Palop

VALENCIA: Albiol, Marchena, Silva, Villa

VILLARREAL: Capdevila, Cazorla, Senna

ZARAGOZA: Sergio García

Gabi Milito and Andres Iniesta have both been ruled out of Barça's next two games, at home to Valencia on Sunday and Wednesday's Clasico against Real Madrid. Milito is suffering from a cartilage problem while Iniesta has had a recurrence of his meniscus problems which forced him to miss the game at Recreativo. Iniesta is also doubtful for next weekend's game at home to Mallorca.

Another month where it seems there is little to smile about. However, as usual when the chips are down our very own Captain Marvel, Carles Puyol, raises his game, and he thoroughly deserves to be named April Player of the Month. He was excellent in the quarter final games with Schalke, and stayed at a decent level throughout the month despite all the team problems. The top five for April is as follows:

1. 
   
   
2. Carles Puyol
   
3. Leo Messi
   
4. Toure Yaya
   
5. Andres Iniesta
   
6. Gabi Milito

With important matches against Espanyol and Manchester United in the next seven days it is good to see that many of the players with physical problems are recovering in time. Deco who hasn't played since the start of March looks ready to play after training well for the last three days. He may well start against Espanyol to try and regain match fitness and then be available for the Champions League game.

Henry, Iniesta and Marquez all missed last weekend's game at Recreativo but today trained normally for most of the session and only at the end did they partake in individual exercises along with Milito and Thuram. Frank Rijkaard will need to decide who to play and who to rest against Espanyol with an eye on having the team at its maximum level next Wednesday. The only first team players who are s...