GOALSCORING hero Xavi has warned Germany ahead of tomorrow's Euro 2008 final that "no-one can stop" Spain if they continue to play at their best.
The Spanish are sky high after Thursday night's 3-0 semi-final victory over Russia, a result that put the team into the championship game of a major tournament for the first time in 24 years.
Xavi, who scored Spain's first in the second half, sa
id: "It was a very important goal for me and it gave us calmness.
"None of us had the experience of playing in a European semi-final.
"Tomorrow, we have another chance to make history. I think when we play one-touch football no-one can stop us."
European champions in 1964 in Madrid, the Spaniards have been branded the game's biggest underachievers on the international stage ever since – something that will not change unless they overcome the Germans.
"Germany are a very solid team with great experience," said Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso.
"But in a final there's no clear favourite, anything can happen.
"What we want is to play well and deserve the title."
Spain will have to do without the tournament's leading goalscorer David Villa, who has been ruled out of the final with a muscular injury. Villa, who has struck four times for Spain in Austria and Switzerland, got hurt in the first half against Russia.
His absence is a setback for Luis Aragones' men.
"It's a pity that Villa can't play in the final because he has been a crucial player for us with his goals," said Alonso.
"Now I hope we can lift the cup for him."
Alonso has promised the "best is yet to come" from the Spaniards.
Expectation back home has gone through the roof with fans desperate for Spain to banish their reputation as world football's great underachievers.
And Liverpool midfielder Alonso is confident they can give them what they crave.
He said: "The best is yet to come and we need to finish off what we have done so far.
"We are hungry for success, we want to lift the cup on Sunday."
Spain went into the tournament as one of the favourites but sceptics pointed to their mental fragility as one reason why they would not succeed.
Time and time again they have failed on the big stage.
It happened two years ago in Germany when they lost to France in the quarter-finals while in Portugal at Euro 2004 they failed to get out of their group. Before that there was the quarter-final exit to South Korea at the 2002 World Cup, a game that Spain would have won had a perfectly good goal in extra-time by Fernando Morientes had been allowed to stand instead of being ruled out for offside.
Spain have a tradition of early exits but against Russia, the team which knocked out Holland so impressively in the last eight, there was renewed purpose.
"We played a complete game," admitted Alonso.
"We showed the necessary maturity to control possession and to go forward and create goalscoring opportunities that allowed us to kill the game off.
"Now the fans can celebrate but we have to contain our happiness because we have yet to win the biggest game of all."
When the tournament's leading scorer Villa limped off after 34 minutes and the game still tied at 0-0, Russia might have sensed their opportunity. But Aragones has been pulling the right strings from the start in Austria and Switzerland and he did so again, bringing on Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas who more than made up for Villa's absence in a more forward role than he is accustomed. With Spain continuing to pile on the pressure, the goals arrived.
Xavi had put Spain on their way in the 50th minute before substitute Guiza made it 2-0 and Silva struck to ensure Spain claimed their fifth win in as many games.
Spain now face a big hurdle against Joachim Low's side.
"We have to respect Germany," said Fabregas, who could earn a starting role in the final .
"They are a very strong and very competitive team.
"They are one of those teams that fight until the end and it's going to be difficult to beat them.
"But we are united, all rowing in the same direction and now we want to give our fans the biggest joy of all which is to take home the trophy."
The full article contains 752 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
