Spain 4 – 0 Italy

As finals go, this was a bit of a damp squib. Sodden, drowned squib. You’ve got to feel for the Italians. Being two down at the break to the World Champions is obviously a bit of a pickle, but using all your substitutes by the hour and then having Thiago Motta trudge of injured is just terrible luck. There’s no way back from that. And there wasn’t. Strangely, there were six players (50% of which were called Mario) who topped the goalscoring charts for the tournament with a paltry total of three. Fernando Torres won the Golden Boot by virtue of less playing time. Which just seems weird. Substitute tap-ins are king then, I guess. I don’t make the rules up.