Euro 2012: Spain's Pinnacle in Poland & Ukraine
It Was What It Was : The Football History Podcast
The Overlap
4.9 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2024
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this week’s episode, we take an in-depth look at Euro 2012, a tournament fondly remembered as the crowning moment in Spain’s era of dominance, marking their third consecutive major win following Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup.
Journalists Jonathan Wilson and Rob Draper kick things off by delving into the politics behind the decision to host the tournament in Poland and Ukraine, exploring how the host cities managed the logistical challenges and the lasting impact of the event.
Jonathan and Rob provide a comprehensive overview of the group stages, highlighting memorable moments such as Danny Welbeck’s back-heeled winner against Sweden. They then move on to iconic knockout stage moments, including Andrea Pirlo’s masterful penalty, Mario Balotelli’s unforgettable performance against Germany and Spain’s utterly dominant 4-0 victory over Italy in the final.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm not strong, I'm not fast, nor am I skillful. |
| 0:11.1 | I'm a player from the street. |
| 0:13.3 | Without my teammates, without space, I'm nothing. |
| 0:17.6 | Welcome to It Was What It Was. |
| 0:19.1 | I'm Rob Draper and I'm here with Jonathan Wilson and we are in the midst of the Euros. |
| 0:24.1 | Euro fever is all over the continent. |
| 0:26.8 | And today we're going to delve back in some rather recent history and Euro 2012. |
| 0:32.3 | The reason for this is it's notable for football reasons because I think it's peak ticicke, |
| 0:37.4 | at their |
| 0:39.2 | absolute best in this final, the tournament that they go on to win. But also it has huge |
| 0:45.5 | geopolitical resonance for events of today and obviously the Ukraine, Russia war. Many of the |
| 0:51.7 | cities, the stadia and the airports that we visited Jonathan at that time |
| 0:57.2 | have now been shelled to pieces. They're under daily attack often, beautiful cities like |
| 1:03.1 | Kharkiv. And so there's lots of threads and resonance with current day events and old |
| 1:10.4 | histories between Russia and Ukraine and the Soviet Union Ukraine, |
| 1:14.6 | which came up during this tournament. So that's why we thought it would be an interesting |
| 1:18.6 | European championships to look at. So Jonathan, why don't you set the scene for us and talk us through |
| 1:23.4 | how the Euro 2012 came to be awarded, who was hosting it, and what the significance of it was. |
| 1:29.7 | Yeah, so the decisions made in Cardiff in 2007, |
| 1:34.0 | but it's going to go to Poland, Ukraine. |
| 1:36.6 | The other bids were Italy, |
| 1:39.1 | and then a joint bid from Croatia, Hungary. |
... |
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