Euro 2008 Facts

Euro 2008

One of the world's biggest soccer tournaments has just wrapped up and Spain came up on top! Check out Kidzworld's facts on Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland.

History

The European Soccer Championship has been held every four years since 1960. Greece is the defending champion, after winning the tournament in 2004. Germany has won the European Championship the most, with three titles.

The 411

Euro 2008 is the world's largest international soccer tournament, outside of the World Cup. The tournament featured Europe's top 16 teams. The 16 teams are divided into four divisions and played a round-robin tournament to determine the eight teams which will advance to the quarter-finals.

Euro 2008 was played between June 7 and June 29, 2008 in eight cities in the host countries, Austria and Switzerland. The Final Match of Euro 2008 was held on June 29, 2008 in Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna.

The Stars

The Euro 2008 soccer tournament featured Europe's biggest soccer stars. Some of the star players in the three-week tournament included Portugese superstar Christiano Ronaldo, Michael Ballack from Germany, Luca Toni from Italy, Fanis Gekas from Greece and Fernando Torres of Spain.

Spain Champs!

Spain defeated Germany 1-0 to win the European Championship on July 29, 2008. Fernando Torres scored the only goal of the game 33 minutes in the game. The victory was the first European Championship for Spain in 44 years!

FYI

The Euro 2008 was played in eight different venues across Switzerland and Austria.

The official Euro 2008 song was "Can You Hear Me" by Enrique Iglesias, which was also performed live as part of the official closing ceremony after the final in Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna on June 29.

Trix and Flix, were the official mascot of Euro 2008.

The slogan for Euro 2008 was Expect Emotions.

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