Key facts
• A bad start was put behind them as Luis Aragonés’s side beat Sweden 3-0 at home in their penultimate qualifier to confirm their place in the finals.
• Spain had ended 2006 as a team in crisis, a shock 3-2 defeat against Northern Ireland in Belfast being followed by a 2-0 loss in Sweden to leave them with just three points from their first three Group F games.
• Results improved in 2007 with a 1-1 draw against Iceland in Reykjavik – earned with a late Andrés Iniesta strike – the only blip during a run of eight wins in nine.
• Aragonés’s team underlined their quality by following up a 3-1 victory in Denmark with the all-important 3-0 success against Sweden.
• A 1-0 win against Northern Ireland in their last qualifier secured top spot in the section, but Aragonés said: “Spain have been qualifying for finals tournaments for many years so this isn’t a success but simply doing our duty.”• Up until the end of UEFA EURO 2008 qualifying, Spain had been involved in the most fixtures by a single country in the competition with 122 matches since their 4-2 away win against Poland in the last 16 of the 1960 UEFA European Championship on 28 June 1959. Denmark were second on 120 with the Netherlands and France joint third with 117 matches played.
• Up until the end of qualifying for UEFA EURO 2008, Spain had appeared in all 13 UEFA European Championship qualifying competitions, and had played 122 matches. In that time, they had won 72, drawn 24 and lost 26 with 260 goals scored and 108 conceded.
from: http://en.euro2008.uefa.com
