SPAIN 4-0 ITALY

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Looking back on this tournament, the inevitability of a Spanish victory was as glaringly obvious as Martin Keown's analysis.

Spain may not lay claim to the two best players in world football - although most of their side play with one of them - but if you were putting together a world XI, their squad probably comprises the other nine.

And, when viewed from this position, the question marks over tiki-taka are insane. Insane.

My obiturary of Xavi Hernandez (a keen reader of this blog) has been well and truly thrown back in my face. Or, should I say, has been slid into my feet via another inch-perfectly-weighted-perfectly-timed through ball. The man can pass.

His team can pass. And they passed a good-looking Italian side to death.

Despite which, if Antonio Di Natale had paid more attention to the chances that came his way, this may have been a very different final. It's not that this Spanish team can't be beaten. If Portugal had borrowed Fernando Torres for the semi, they might have won. Perhaps they should have asked. He wasn't doing anything else that night.

Maybe that's something for Michel Platini to consider over his next buffet lunch - the loaning of players between squads during tournaments. He seems so determined to ruin a perfectly good format (24 teams to qualify in 2016) that anything is possible:



And while we're on the subject of incompetence, let's talk briefly about TV commentary.

Football encourages debate and there are many differing opinions. But the one subject that's brought everyone together this tournament, is a consensus that the standard of commentary on the terrestrial channels is the lowest (and most irritating) it's ever been.

For periods of the final, we took to flicking between channels whenever "Lawro" or "Clive" said anything banal or infuriatingly stupid. The result was enough to induce a seizure. We had to stop for our own safety.

Brian Moore, Barry Davies, and Martin Tyler must all be turning in their graves. Which is astonishing when you consider that only one of them is actually dead.

FINAL GEEK-OUT / ROLL CALL
[placings, after round of elimination, decided by group points won, then overall goal difference for the tournament - additional points awarded for extra time / penalty eliminations]

1. Spain; 2. Italy; 3. Germany; 4. Portugal; 5. England; 6. Czech Republic; 7. Greece; 8. France; 9. Russia; 10. Croatia; 11. Sweden; 12. Denmark; 13. Ukraine; 14. Poland; 15. Holland; 16. Republic Of Ireland 

THE STORY SO FAR

Match of the tournament: Sweden 2-3 England

Player of the tournament: Xavi (Spain)

Goal of the tournament: Balotelli (Germany v ITALY) - [2nd goal]