Euro 2008

The best tournament I can remember since France '98 (why are World Cups known by their host nation but European Championships not?). In terms of sheer quality of football, sustained from the groups stages through to the final, it was perfect. Yes, there were bad matches. But the fact that France vs. Romania and Germany vs. Austria are talked of as such breaks from the norm, rather than as typical of the overall standard is rather illustrative.

Spain were worthy winners. After a rather off-key performance in the quarter final against Spain, I feared that they would not live up to the bar of good football - set by Portugal and Spain themselves, raised by Holland and then by Russia. But the semi final and this evening were two displays of the highest quality. Masters of geometry like no other, they played with a freedom and fluidity no other team could match. It was true tiki-taka as the Spanish have always intended it.

My original and unpredictable team of the tournament

Buffon; Zhirkov, Marchena, Chiellini, Sergio Ramos; Sneijder, Senna; Podolski, Ballack, Iniesta; Villa

My substitutes bench which evolved into a second eleven

Casillas; van Bronckhorst, Puyol, Corluka, Anyukov; Engelaar, Frings; Kazim, Arshavin, David Silva; van Nistelrooy

My players of the tournament

3 Andreas Isaksson 2 Gelson Fernandes 1 Vedran Corluka

My non-City players of the tournament

3 David Silva 2 Marcos Senna 1 Andres Iniesta

Goal of the tournament

3 Ballack vs Austria 2 Sneijder vs France 1 Schweinsteiger vs Portugal

Would have liked to have seen more from...

3 Mario Gomez 2 Cristiano Ronaldo 1 Franck Ribery

I can't remember them being that good in England...

3 Geovanni van Bronckhorst 2 Thomas Hitzlsperger 1 Colin Kazim-Richards

Beard of the tournament sponsored by 'Das Boot'

2 Olof Mellberg 1 Christoph Metzelder

Thierry Henry award for being brilliant 98% of the time but not showing up in big games

Cristiano Ronaldo

Roberto Carlos award for spending so much time attacking that you forget to defend

Phillip Lahm