Villa hat-trick sinks Russia
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David Villa scored a hat-trick to put Spain for a dream start in the tournament.
The Valencia striker scored twice in the first period before completed his hat-trick 15 minutes from time.
He awarded as the man of the match and put himself as the tournament's leading scorer.
The Spanish win over Russia was the best performance of the tournament so far.
They started Euro 2008 as second favorite behind Germany.
At Euro 2004 La Furia Roja also beat Russia in their opening group match, but in the end both of them were failed to get through to the knock-out round.
Spain looked impressive from the start with a pair of prolific strikers up front.
Villa and Fernando Torres, winning his 50th cap, gave the Russian defence a hard time with their speed and penetration.
In midfield, quartet of Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, David Silva and Marcos Senna supplying the ball to feed El Guaje and El Niño.
Luis Aragonés surprised many by put Arsenal's midfielder Cesc Fàbregas on the bench. Instead, he pairing the playmaker Xavi with more defensively-minded Senna.
Senna, a target of Manchester United after the 2006 World Cup, was in splendid form as well.
Russia started positively but caught four times on the counter-attack.
Their supporters tried their best to inspire the team with singing, waving flags and even large photographs of the 1960 Soviet winners.
Although Russia were without their suspended leader Andrei Arshavin and injured Pavel Pogrebniak, but had fought valorously during the match.
The victory confirms Spain as serious favorites for the title.
Despite historically this is not for the first time they started a major tournament with such a promising start but eventually failed to live up to those high expectations.
Spain: 1-Iker Casillas; 15-Sergio Ramos, 5-Carles Puyol, 4-Carlos Marchena, 11-Joan Capdevila; 6-Andres Iniesta (12-Santi Cazorla 63), 19-Marcos Senna, 8-Xavi, 21-David Silva (14-Xabi Alonso 77); 7-David Villa, 9-Fernando Torres (10-Cesc Fabregas 54)
Russia: 1-Igor Akinfeeev; 22-Alexander Anyukov, 8-Denis Kolodin, 14-Roman Shirokov, 18-Yuri Zhirkov; 11-Sergei Semak, 17-Konstantin Zyryanov, 20-Igor Semshov (7-Dmitry Torbinsky 57), 15-Diniyar Bilyaletdinov; 21-Dmitry Sychev (23-Vladimir Bystrov 46, 6-Roman Adamov 70); 19-Roman Pavlyuchenko
Referee: Konrad Plautz (Austria)
Statistics:
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The Valencia striker scored twice in the first period before completed his hat-trick 15 minutes from time.
He awarded as the man of the match and put himself as the tournament's leading scorer.
The Spanish win over Russia was the best performance of the tournament so far.
They started Euro 2008 as second favorite behind Germany.
At Euro 2004 La Furia Roja also beat Russia in their opening group match, but in the end both of them were failed to get through to the knock-out round.
Spain looked impressive from the start with a pair of prolific strikers up front.
Villa and Fernando Torres, winning his 50th cap, gave the Russian defence a hard time with their speed and penetration.
In midfield, quartet of Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, David Silva and Marcos Senna supplying the ball to feed El Guaje and El Niño.
Luis Aragonés surprised many by put Arsenal's midfielder Cesc Fàbregas on the bench. Instead, he pairing the playmaker Xavi with more defensively-minded Senna.
Senna, a target of Manchester United after the 2006 World Cup, was in splendid form as well.
Russia started positively but caught four times on the counter-attack.
Their supporters tried their best to inspire the team with singing, waving flags and even large photographs of the 1960 Soviet winners.
Although Russia were without their suspended leader Andrei Arshavin and injured Pavel Pogrebniak, but had fought valorously during the match.
The victory confirms Spain as serious favorites for the title.
Despite historically this is not for the first time they started a major tournament with such a promising start but eventually failed to live up to those high expectations.
| Spain |  | 4 - 1 |  | Russia |
| David Villa 20 | Roman Pavlyuchenko 86 | |||
| David Villa 44 | ||||
| David Villa 75 | ||||
| Cesc Fabregas 90 |
Spain: 1-Iker Casillas; 15-Sergio Ramos, 5-Carles Puyol, 4-Carlos Marchena, 11-Joan Capdevila; 6-Andres Iniesta (12-Santi Cazorla 63), 19-Marcos Senna, 8-Xavi, 21-David Silva (14-Xabi Alonso 77); 7-David Villa, 9-Fernando Torres (10-Cesc Fabregas 54)
Russia: 1-Igor Akinfeeev; 22-Alexander Anyukov, 8-Denis Kolodin, 14-Roman Shirokov, 18-Yuri Zhirkov; 11-Sergei Semak, 17-Konstantin Zyryanov, 20-Igor Semshov (7-Dmitry Torbinsky 57), 15-Diniyar Bilyaletdinov; 21-Dmitry Sychev (23-Vladimir Bystrov 46, 6-Roman Adamov 70); 19-Roman Pavlyuchenko
Referee: Konrad Plautz (Austria)
Statistics:
| Shots on target : | 12 | - | 5 |
| Shots off target : | 5 | - | 5 |
| Ball possession (%) : | 46 | - | 54 |
| Corner kicks : | 4 | - | 6 |
| Offsides : | 2 | - | 5 |
| Fouls : | 21 | - | 17 |
| Yellow cards : | 0 | - | 0 |
| Red cards : | 0 | - | 0 |
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Soumen
Soccer, Euro 2008 News
However, I don't mind predictions for the upcoming soccer as long as the probability of getting correct is more than 90% so I can bet on it lolz