Spain defeated France in Paris 0-1 to take the lead in their World Cup qualifying Group I. The victory boosts Spanish hopes of automatic qualification for the 2014 finals in Brazil. The winning goal, scored by FC Barcelona winger Pedro, was notched in minute 58 as the player bundled the ball and his entire body over the line in front of despairing French keeper Hugo Loris. The victory seemed deserved after 90 minutes as Spain spurned several clearcut chances, most notably when Xavi fired over the bar when he seemed sure to score in the 5th minute. Both teams went close on occasion after that before Pedro finally broke the deadlock. French defender Paul Pogba was ejected from the match in minute 78 for his second yellow, giving his team no chance of an equalizer.

With three matches remaining, the battle for first place in the group will continue to be tight; the next round of qualifiers will take place in June and September.

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The Spanish national team, built on a foundation of Barcelona players, will face France on Tuesday with automatic qualification for the 2014 World Cup potentially at stake. With four qualifying matches remaining, Spain trail France by two points in Group I and a setback in Paris would put Vicente del Bosque’s squad in an awkward position for a berth in Brazil. Group runner-ups must play an additional qualifying round to see who goes on to the finals next year. And, in an odd coincidence, this decisive match happens a week before FC Barcelona proper travel to Paris for their April 2nd date with PSG in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Drama like this makes the international break tolerable! Does Spain have what it will take to beat France?

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Barcelona’s 33 year old midfielder maestro Xavi was the only notable absentee from training as Spanish coach Vicente Del Bosque prepared his team for the forthcoming World Cup Qualifiers against Finland and France.

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In the aftermath of another heated Clásico, Dani Alves, FC Barcelona’s right back, dejectedly pointed out that “the fight against racism in Spanish football is a lost cause”. He was referring to the monkey noises that some Real Madrid supporters chanted at him whenever he touched the ball. These insults most likely came from the infamous “Parroquia Blanca” section of the Bernabéu, which also joined in calling Messi a “subnormal”, the Spanish term for a mentally challenged person. Sadly, this kind of behavior is only the most recent manifestation of a long tradition of racism in football. Ultimately, these chants represent a much larger problem, one that is deeply ingrained in the fringes of society. In a time when racism is supposedly a thing of the past, some fans take advantage of the anonymity that a football stadium provides in order to release bottled up emotions that they wouldn’t be free to express elsewhere. As a result, angry and offensive taunts are common, to the point that insulting the other team has become an accepted sign of the more committed fan.

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The globally famous World Soccer magazine yesterday evening handed out their 2012 awards, a tradition that began 30 years ago.  This year the scoring system had a fresh dimension as votes from both readers and independent experts were weighted exactly 50/50.  With a combined percentage of 47.33% Lionel Messi was the clear winner of the 2012 Player of the Year, beating Cristiano Ronaldo (19.01%) and Andres Iniesta (9.77%) by significant margins.  Reported Barça target Neymar finished 6th with 3.6% while club legend Xavi Hernandez earned 1.78%.  The website also displays a breakdown of the voting.  40.13% of readers voted for Messi while 54.54% of experts wrote down his name.  This is Lionel Messi’s 3rd time claim to the award (2009 and 2011), making him only the second player ever, along with the original Ronaldo, to be bestowed the honor thrice.  The magazine also named winners in the categories of Team and Manager.

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Tonight in Oviedo, the communal capital of the northern province of Asturias, Xavi Hernández and Iker Casillas will jointly accept the Prince of Asturias Award in sport. These awards are given yearly in a total of 8 categories: art, communications and humanities, international cooperation, literature, social sciences, sports, technical and scientific research, and peace. They are governed by the Prince of Asturias Foundation, established by Prince Philip, the heir apparent to the Spanish throne.

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FC Barcelona will receive 2.2 million euros from UEFA for the participation of its players in the European Championships held earlier this year in Poland and Ukraine.

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International friendlies are scheduled this midweek before the start of the new La Liga season, and 11 Barça players will be fulfilling their national team duties.

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Spain vs. Morocco, 2012 Olympic Games, Group D, Game 3
Wednesday, August 1, 2012 at 17:00 local time/18:00 Barcelona time (Convert to your local time)
Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England (Capacity: 75,811)
Barça players to watch: Martín Montoya, Jordi Alba, and Cristian Tello

It’s been a dismal 2012 Olympics Games for Spain’s football team. Considered one of the favourites to medal, Spain is instead out of the competition with two losses (both 0-1) and no goals scored. While the team can’t move on to the quarter-finals, the players at least have the chance for a bit of redemption, if they can score and win today’s game against Morocco.

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The Spanish Olympic team was eliminated from the competition on Sunday, losing 0-1 to Honduras. After beginning the tournament with a loss to Japan by the same scoreline, the Spaniards have yet to gain a point or score a goal. And despite the final group match still to play, the Spaniards have been mathematically eliminated from the Games, and will return home after Wednesday’s meaningless encounter with Morocco. Continue reading »

Spain vs. Honduras, 2012 Olympic Games, Group D, Game 2
Sunday, July 29, 2012 at 19:45 local time/20:45 Barcelona time (Convert to your local time)
St James’ Park, Newcastle, England (Capacity: 52,387)
Barça players to watch: Martín Montoya, Jordi Alba, and Cristian Tello

After a disappointing loss in the opening match to Japan (0-1), Spain will look for a win today to keep the team’s hopes of a spot in the quarter-finals alive.

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Spain vs. Japan, 2012 Olympic Games, Group D, Game 1
Thursday, July 26, 2012 at 14:45 local time/15:45 Barcelona time (Convert to your local time)
Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland (Capacity: 52,063)
Barça players to watch: Martín Montoya, Jordi Alba, and Cristian Tello

Even though the official opening ceremony isn’t until Friday, the 2012 Olympic Men’s Football tournament kicks off this afternoon, with three Barça representatives in Spain’s 18-man squad.

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Ahead of their first match against Japan today (14:45 GMT, 15:45 Barcelona time) , the players comprising Spain’s Olympic squad for the 2012 games in London posed for their official portraits for the tournament. Catch Alba and Tello’s portraits after the jump.

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The London Olympics 2012 officially begin Friday, July 27th, but strangely enough the football begins the day before.  The Spanish team, with Alba, Montoya, and Tello from FC Barcelona, begin their campaign on Thursday, July 26th, 2012 at 14:45 GMT versus Japan.  Spain have won the football gold in the Olympics once before in 1992 in the Barcelona games beating Poland 3-2, with Josep Guardiola central to the team. Argentina, 2 time defending champions, did not qualify for this year’s games, but Spain will receive a large enough challenge from the highly talented, creatively explosive Brazil team.

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Reigning European champions Spain played its second consecutive European Championship final against Italy Sunday. The national team steamrolled over a struggling Italy and solidified its spot in history.

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Italy manager Cesar Prandelli’s changing of the Azzurri’s formation to a 4-3-1-2 from a 3-5-2  has at the least propelled, if not outright caused, a run to the finals of Euro 2012 for the 2006 World Cup champions.  Featuring a diamond midfield capable of providing shielding for playmaker Andrea Pirlo and direct runs at goal from Claudio Marchisio all while enabling Daniele De Rossi to play in his favoured role, Italy’s second shape of the tournament stakes a great claim to the centre of the pitch, looking to dictate from within rather than race down the flanks.

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“Spain, if it were to win the whole thing, would be the first to triumph in three consecutive international tournaments. The Spanish would arguably have the best national team ever. Their unique way of playing, which goes by the deceptively cute name of “tiki-taka” is really a form of torture in which the victimized team spends the entire game chasing short, one-touch passes, slowly being run into the ground—at which point Spain walks the ball into the goal and wins 1-0. Crowds have whistled in derision as La Furia Roja dink the ball around, pundits have said Spain can’t keep “barely” winning, and writers have eloquently imagined ways of countering this method, but nobody has beaten Spain in a decisive game for almost eight years.”

– DUSHKO PETROVICH from the N+1 blog

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Spain and Italy face off today in what will surely be an epic battle for the European championship of 2012. Here are a few juicy tidbits about the match to get you warmed up. Check back later today for a more full-blown tactical preview of the two sides.

• If Spain should win the match, they will be the first side in history to win three consecutive major international tournaments.

• Momentum points to a Spanish victory: the current squad is on a record run of 19 matches without a defeat; they have emerged from their last nine knockout matches without so much as conceding even a single goal.

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Álvaro Negredo is a striker of considerable class, combining the physicality necessary to win aerial duels and play with one’s back to goal with the guile and burst necessary to wreak havoc on runs in behind defence.  There isn’t a club in the world who couldn’t put his talents to use in some capacity, and an undoubted many would play the Sevilla frontman in a starring role.  But, of all the games that Spain manager Vicente del Bosque could have debuted Negredo in at Euro 2012, there exists no answer for why it was in the semi-finals against Portugal and not in the group stage matches against Italy, Ireland or Croatia.

There, simply, was no role for Negredo: with Portugal pressing from the very outset and closing down any Spanish player on the ball, the options to provide service were limited and the available paths to do so were on the wrong side of challenging.  And since Portugal had the same number of centre-midfielders that Spain –  nominally — did, the omission of Cesc Fàbregas as a false-nine made Portugal’s harrying of Spain’s midfield all the more cogent.

To make matters worse for the defending Euro champions, employing the wrong striker wasn’t even Del Bosque’s only mistake in his starting eleven. Continue reading »

Spain advanced to the final of the European Championships in a dramatic, yet uneventful, game against Iberian rivals Portugal.

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While Vicente del Bosque has crowned La Roja’s shape at Euro 2012 with either a striker in Fernando Torres or a false-nine in Cesc Fàbregas, both representing a discrete tactical aim, he has kept the remainder of the defending champion’s starting eleven static, employing a back-four in defence, a three-man centre of midfield featuring a double-pivot, and two inverted wingers.

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FC Barcelona midfielder Xavi on Saturday overtook French wizard Zinedine Zidane to top the list of successful passers in Euro championship history. Xavi, who has at least one more match to play, has now completed 734 passes. The old record was a mere 707.

Stats: OptaSports • Image: JOSE ANTONIO GARCIA SIRVENT – MD

A nineteenth minute header provided the cushion and a ninetieth minute penalty provided the closure, and Spain rides into the semi-finals of Euro 2012 on the back of Xabi Alonso’s brace.

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Spain was all business in its quarterfinal matchup with France, and thanks to Alonso’s goals, the defending champions will make a semifinal appearance in the European Championships next week.

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France coach Laurent Blanc all but admitted that his team would “park the bus” during their quarter-final matchup with Spain at the Euro12 finals. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the clash, Blanc praised the Spanish possession game and admitted that his side would adapt to the Spanish tactics: “Spain are going to have the ball, it is impossible to fight them for ball retention. Spain have been humble saying we’re dangerous and a good side. I don’t know if they were telling the truth, but at some stage we have to try to be dangerous. Yet we have to be careful of them. I usually say we have to adapt as little as possible to our opponents and play to our own strengths, but they are the best team in the world.”

When asked about the merits of this Spain squad relative to the team that won the World Cup two years ago, Blanc responded: “Oh come on. People may criticize the Spanish, but I wouldn’t because from a fan’s perspective, as a neutral, I love watching them. If people like football, they will all agree that it is a absolute delight to watch Spain. Spain have a unique playing style and have dominated world football for four years. Everyone tries to stop them and no one has been able to.” 

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Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli will oversee the Euro12 quarter-final match pitting Spain against France. Rizzoli, who plies his trade in Italy’s Serie A, saw action during the France v England match earlier in the competition. He came under somewhat severe criticism in the British press for his decisions in that match, and was said to have favored the French at a number of crucial junctures. Let’s hope for a fair performance in this match!

Image: Daniel Dal Zennaro [dpa]

The unanimous conclusion among football pundits is that this Spanish team is weaker than the side that won the 2010 World Cup. English football writer, and noted dog lover, Sid Lowe turns to the stat books for a devastating reply:

“Spain top every major stat at Euro2012. Goals, goals conceded, shots, shots on target, passes, pass accuracy, corners. Playing badly?”

Stats: @sidlowe • Image: Michael Sohn [AP]

Tensions in Laurent Blanc’s France team boiled over after Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat to Sweden, as players clashed in the dressing room after the match, according to reports published Wednesday in The Guardian. The new French manager affirmed specifically that “Yes, it got a bit heated, but then everyone had a cold shower. It shows that there was a bit of electricity. I hope there will be against Spain, because we’ll need it.” 

France made an early and ungraceful exit from the 2010 World Cup after players mutinied against former coach Raymond Domenech. Blanc was hired to rebuild the team with new players and to reimpose order and discipline in the squad. He will face his biggest test as manager so far when he faces Spain on June 23 with a place in the semi-finals at stake.

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First round action in Euro12 Groups C and D is complete and the quarter-final matchups are staring us all in the face. Group C winners Spain will faceoff with France after the latter finished second in Group D with a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Sweden. Group C runnersup Italy will take on England to round out that side of the bracket. The full quarter-final schedule is as follows:

• Czech Republic v Portugal: Thursday June 21
• Germany v Greece: Friday June 22
• Spain v France: Saturday June 23
• England v Italy: Sunday June 24

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Spain advanced to the quarter-final round of the Euro 2012 championship on Monday with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Croatia that saw Jesus Navas break the deadlock in the 88th minute. The Spaniards progress to the knockout phase of the competition and a likely encounter with either France or England in the next round. Check back to the site later today for a more complete roundup of the final matches in Groups B and C.

Image: Piotr Pedziszewski/EPA