Lethal Villa tips the balance

Spain sealed their place in the quarter-finals of UEFA EURO 2008™ after David Villa's 92nd-minute winner gave Luis Aragonés's side a 2-1 win against Sweden.

Sides match up
Before a sell-out crowd of 30,772 supporters, the sides lined up in matching 4-4-2 formations. Aragonés deployed the same side that crushed Russia 4-1 in the opening match, with Fernando Torres partnering Villa in attack. Sweden coach Lars Lagerbäck, meanwhile, changed two players from the team that overcame Greece 2-0 in Salzburg. Fredrik Stoor came in for Niclas Alexandersson at right-back while Johan Elmander — who scored four goals in qualifying — replaced Christian Wilhelmsson.

Lethal Villa 
With his three goals against Russia, Villa became only the seventh player in UEFA European Championship history to notch a hat-trick at the finals. Today, he added to that tally to move further clear at the top of the scorers' charts with four goals from two matches. The clinical Valencia CF striker had three shots on goal, all of which were on target. Torres's aim was also true; not only did he score the opener on the quarter-hour mark, but four of his five shots in the match were goalbound. In all, Spain had 15 attempts, ten of which were on target. Sweden, by contrast, had nine shots, but only twice did they trouble goalkeeper Iker Casillas, netting the equaliser on one such occasion when Zlatan Ibrahimović struck back on 34 minutes.

Spanish control
Spain had the controlling share of possession in the first half (57 per cent) while both sides committed ten fouls apiece. In the second half, they dominated further, seeing 63 per cent of the ball overall, with Lagerbäck's men enduring immense pressure. Sweden's Anders Svensson committed the most fouls (six), earning a 55th-minute yellow card in the process, and Spain's dominance was also borne out in the corner count, which read 7-1 to the winning team.

Hard-running
Daniel Andersson covered the most ground, running 12.51km during the match. Despite his 36 years, Henrik Larsson also clocked up the kilometres, running 10.6 in all. Five Spaniards ran in excess of 10km: David Villa, Joan Capdevila, Sergio Ramos, Marcos Senna and David Silva. Capdevila also saw the most of the ball, with 67 touches, while Marcos Senna boasted an unrivalled pass percentage of 91 per cent. Carles Puyol's performance was flawless in this respect, but the FC Barcelona captain only played 14 passes — out of 946 in the entire contest — before being forced off with an injury and replaced by Raúl Albiol after 24 minutes.