Football: Spain beats Germany 1-0 to win Euro title

VIENNA, Austria: Fernando Torres finally lived up to his billing as one of the world's great strikers Sunday by scoring to give Spain a 1-0 win over Germany and the European Championship title.

Torres, who had been overshadowed by teammate David Villa all tournament, scored in the 33rd minute of the final to down the three-time European champions and earn his nation's first major title in 44 years.

Touching a sliding pass from Xavi Hernandez past Philipp Lahm, Torres turned and ran past his marker on the opposite side, collected the ball and lifted a shot over sliding goalkeeper Jens Lehmann and into the far corner.

"My job is to score goals,'' Torres said.

"I want to win more titles and be the most important player in Europe and the world.''

Milan admit defeat in Ronaldinho transfer race

AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani has admitted the club cannot compete financially with Manchester City in the race to sign Ronaldinho.Galliani said Milan and other Italian clubs are being squeezed out of several transfer moves as clubs in England, Spain and Germany have more money to spend.

'I cannot ignore that Italian football is now in fourth position in Europe behind England, Spain and Germany,' he said in Gazzetta dello Sport.

'We simply cannot compete with certain figures anymore.

'Manchester City have offered the Brazilian (Ronaldinho) 12 million euros (£9.5million) a year. We can only compete with that if they (Barcelona) give him away for free.'

the coach is refusing

BADEN, June 18 (Reuters) - Strikers are finding Euro 2008 more difficult than defenders because of the demands of a long season, Italy coach Roberto Donadoni said on Wednesday

The world champions beat 10-man France 2-0 in their final Group C game on Tuesday to set up a quarter-final with Spain on Sunday in Vienna. So far none of Donadoni's strikers have scored but the coach is refusing to come down hard on Luca Toni, Antonio Cassano, Alessandro Del Piero or Antonio Di Natale.

'I believe we are in the period of the season where it is not easy. After a long, hard season, it is a lot easier for defenders than attackers,' he told a news conference.

The 44-year-old acknowledged that his assertion may not hold true for Spain, whose forwards have been flying with David Villa scoring a hat-trick in their opening 4-1 win over Russia.

'I don't know if you can say it is the worst draw but they are tough,' he said. 'If you don't start brightly against them you will always be playing second fiddle. They are complicated opponents.'

Spain beat Italy 1-0 in a March friendly but have never beaten them at a major soccer tournament outside the Olympics. Donadoni, whose future is unclear because of a reciprocal escape clause in his contract with the Italian federation, sounded confident but was keen not to let expectations run wild.

'I didn't have doubts, I was convinced this was a team that could beat anyone,' he said. 'I don't know if Italy will go right to the end, I only know that we carry on until Sunday. This is the objective, the only one.'

Donadoni is especially under pressure because World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi is still out of work having stepped down after their 2006 triumph, with media reports linking him strongly with a possible return to the job.

Lippi stayed quiet after Italy's opening 3-0 defeat by the Dutch and the 1-1 draw with Romania. However, he broke his silence to salute the side for their performance against France.

'I must compliment the Azzurri because it was not easy to get out of the group after such a difficult start at the Euros. But they showed compactness, enthusiasm and strength that I applaud,' Lippi told reporters in Italy.

Greece 1-2 Spain: Güiza seals Spanish hat-trick

Dani Guiza headed home a late winner as a second-string Spain side battled back from a goal down in Salzburg to leave deposed European champions Greece without a point in Euro 2008. Angelos Charisteas had given Greece a half-time lead, but second-half goals from Ruben De la Red and Guiza helped Group D winners Spain extend their unbeaten run to 19 matches ahead of their quarter-final showdown against Italy. Respective coaches Luis Aragones of Spain and Greece's Otto Rehhagel rang the changes for the match at the Stadion Salzburg Wals-Siezenheim, which had little riding on it other than match practice for one team and pride for the other.

Aragones, as expected, brought in 10 newcomers to the team that had been unchanged for the victories over Russia and Sweden, with Andres Iniesta the only player to have started all three group games. For Greece, Rehhagel opted only to bring in four new faces to the side that lost to Russia last time out, and kept faith with retiring goalkeeper Antonis Nikopolidis, who was making his 90th and last appearance for his country.

With Cesc Fabregas heavily involved, Spain looked the more dangerous of the two sides in the opening stages, but after a few nervous early moments the Greece defence coped fairly comfortably with the group winners' attacks.

The closest either side came to a goal in the opening 30 minutes was through a spectacular effort from inside the centre circle by Spain's stand-in captain Xabi Alonso. The midfielder has famously scored from inside his own half for Liverpool and he almost repeated the feat here, his effort going inches wide of the top corner with the backpedalling Nikopolidis badly struggling before colliding painfully with the woodwork.

Alonso's long-range shooting was looking Spain's best threat at that stage, with the 26-year-old curling another couple of efforts just wide of Nikopolidis' left-hand post. Greece's attacking threat was limited mainly to dead-ball situations in the first half, and it appeared as though there was going to be little to worry Jose Reina in the Spanish goal as the match drifted towards half-time.
However, that was all to change in the 42nd minute when Greece took the lead against the run of play through Charisteas.

The goal stemmed from a free-kick out on the left touchline, which was curled into the box by Giorgos Karagounis and Charisteas escaped his marker to send a thumping header past Reina.
Spain could not claim to be unaware of the danger posed by Charisteas though, as the big centre-forward also scored the goal when the two nations drew 1-1 during the group of stages of Euro 2004, a tournament Greece would famously go on to win.

Aragones opted against bringing any of his big guns on at the break, and he was almost rewarded for his continued faith in his fringe players when Alonso came close to equalising in the 54th minute. Once again showing his prowess from distance, the skipper unleashed a 30-yard thunderbolt which crashed against the inside of the post before flying across the face of the goal.
Spain did not have to wait much longer to get back on level terms though, with De la Red blasting home his side's leveller from 15 yards out.

An Alonso chip into the area was nodded back by Guiza and De la Red was on hand to send an unstoppable shot past Nikopolidis, who got his hand to the ball but could do nothing to keep it out.
Spain's joy very nearly turned to despair three minutes later however as Charisteas broke into the area and skipped past Reina, but he could only hit the outside of the post from a tight angle.
After Guiza, De la Red and Garcia failed to make the most of decent openings, Guiza - La Liga's leading scorer last season - got it right.

With just two minutes remaining he got on the end of Garcia's far-post cross to thump a header past Nikopolidis, giving Spain their second successive last-gasp win following their 2-1 triumph over Sweden.

Nadal humiliates Federer in French Open final

# Story Highlights
# Rafael Nadal becomes second man to win four successive French Open titles
# Second seed crushes world No. 1 Roger Federer 6-1 6-3 6-0 in Paris final
# Nadal has beaten Federer in three successive finals at Roland Garros
# Spaniard matches Bjorn Borg's effort of successive titles from 1978-81

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Löw takes heart from German success

Joachim Löw was delighted to kick off UEFA EURO 2008™ – his first tournament as Germany coach – with a victory and he admitted the 2-0 win against Poland in Klagenfurt had given him great personal satisfaction. By contrast, Leo Beenhakker spoke of the disappointment and depression in the Poland dressing room after his side's brush with a "top-quality" opponent in Group B.

Joachim Löw, Germany coach
Of course we are happy that we won the first game and we are happy with the performance. As a coach, you keep asking yourself where your team are at, right up until the big kick-off. For the three weeks until the tournament starts, you don't have the chance to measure yourself against anybody, but we played well. We had one main focus, which was to win our opening match, and we did that. I think the team proved their determination and their focus. In the first half we had a number of great moves and the game went very smoothly. We can be very happy with the result.

The whole side played very well, not just Lukas Podolski. He scored the two goals and we know that Lukas can perform well and can be a threat to any goalkeeper. At his best, he is a very dangerous player. At times we were also attacking from midfield, while Miroslav Klose and Mario Gómez both contributed to the goals. There were a couple of dangerous situations for us so I'm glad we managed to get the second goal. The atmosphere was good in the dressing room because all that pressure was gone. Everyone was happy.

Leo Beenhakker, Poland coach
You can imagine that we are very disappointed. We competed well and we tried to make it our match but it wasn't easy because we had a genuinely top-quality opponent, with players playing at their highest levels. I wasn't impressed with the second goal. The main thing, especially after half-time when you are losing 1-0, is to try to create a little bit more pressure from the midfield and up front. Automatically you start to play a little more open and then you can suffer the consequence of a second goal. Germany are still the world champions of counterattacking.

At least we tried to get a goal and we made some chances, but after their second goal it was over – that's for sure. We played more or less at the same level as them for 70 minutes, but the last 20 minutes were ones to forget. After the match, everybody was quite depressed by the result but, at the same time, we are still in the tournament. That's what it's all about, whether you are in the EURO or the World Cup, but we have only three or four days now to recover physicaly and mentally.

Hamilton and Rosberg penalized for pit-lane collision

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Williams’ Nico Rosberg will drop 10 places on the grid at the next round of the championship in France as penalty for their pit-lane incident in Canada.

Hamilton ran into the back of Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari, which was stopped at a red light at the pit exit. The resulting damage put both men out the race, with Hamilton admitting he had not seen the light in time. Rosberg then ran into the rear of Hamilton’s stricken McLaren, but was able to rejoin the race, despite damage to the front of his Williams.

Commenting on the incident, Hamilton said: "As I exited the box, I saw two cars jostling for position ahead of me in the pit lane. Obviously, I didn't want to get involved in their tussle, and was trying not to do so, and then all of a sudden they stopped. And by the time they'd come to a halt, it was too late for me to avoid them. It's just unfortunate when stuff like this happens, but I have no argument with the stewards.”

"There's not much I can say," was Raikkonen's reaction. "My race was ruined by Hamilton's mistake. Obviously, anyone can make mistakes, as I did two weeks ago in Monaco, but it's one thing to make a mistake at two hundred (miles) per hour but another to hit a car stopped at a red light. I am not angry because that doesn't achieve anything and does not change my result! I am unhappy, because I had a great chance of winning."

BoO.... hamiliton watch your way !!!!

Rossi extends MotoGP lead with Mugello win

MUGELLO, Italy -- Valentino Rossi produced a dominant performance to win the Italian MotoGP at Mugello and extend his lead in the world championship standings. Seven-time champion Rossi had over two seconds to spare over reigning champion Casey Stoner with Dani Pedrosa of Spain in third place.

Yamaha ace Rossi was winning for the ninth time in 13 rides at Mugello, extending his unbeaten record on the track since 2001.

He was never seriously troubled after taking the lead early in Sunday's 23-lap to record a hat-trick of victories this season and his 65th career win.

"This is a great feeling like always, this is my home grand prix, I have a lot of fans, all my family and close friends come to see me," said Rossi.

"This track is fantastic, it's one of my favorites. At one part of the race I was a bit faster than Casey and Dani and I took advantage."

He now leads Honda's Pedrosa by 12 points in the championships standings with Jorge Lorenzo of Spain a further 14 points adrift.

Rossi's Yamaha teammate Lorenzo came off in Sunday's race and did not score any points -- while Stoner is 45 points behind and struggling to retain his world title

Jamaica's Bolt is world's fastest man

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Jamaica's Usain Bolt is officially the fastest man on the planet as he set a new 100 meters world record of 9.72 seconds at an international meeting in New York.

Bolt was trimming two hundredths of a second off the record previously held by fellow-Jamaican Asafa Powell and for good measure relegated world champion Tyson Gay to a distant second.

The 21-year-old had served notice of his excellent form by running a world's second fastest time of 9.76 seconds in Jamaica last month and he quickly took control of Saturday night's Reebok Grand Prix showdown with Gay, who finished in 9.85 seconds, still a personal best.

Bolt gave credit to a big contingent of Jamaicans who were in the crowd to watch his feat. "Just coming here, knowing a lot of Jamaicans were here giving me their support, it meant a lot," Bolt told the Associated Press. "I just wanted to give them what they wanted."

"He ran a perfect race," Gay said. "I've got to take my hat off to him."

"An awesome athlete," said Shawn Crawford, who finished sixth and witnessed history from two lanes inside of Bolt. "The time shows it."

That is fast...... I wonder how much more lower it can get ......