As much as I can't stand it, have to hand it to spain
This is something monumental. It took massive effort at every tier of football to get Spain here. The 'soul-sapping' passing that Spain gained from Barca had to be done with more than just Barca players.
In fact, due to the mixture of both Barca and Real players, Spain are often better to watch than Barca. They're not as vulnerable either. I also think they only 'betrayed' their attacking philosophy for this tourney simply because they could not replace Villa. While most teams would replace their injured best striker with a lesser one, Spain went 4-6-0... because they can.
Of course, international football is a different animal to club football. You can strategise teams that can over the course of a season learn to defeat a team like Barca. It'll be harder to do that against Spain. 2014 will once again be in the hands of 'Evil'- unless we get a knight in shining armour.
