Never Mind The Ballacks

It's all over - after just over three weeks of too much drinking, too much new food, too much spending, too much travelling around London, and too much outwardly supporting a team while secretly wanting their opponents to win.

The Euro2008InLondong blog crew watched the final with the Spanish fans in Bodega De Tapas in Camden. We arrived just after 4pm and were the first people there. We were so early, in fact, that they sent us away for a while so they could rearrange the bar in preparation.

However, our early arrival was a waste of effort as the venue became gradually more and more rammed and increasing numbers of people started standing between us and the screens.

As kick off drew near it became apparent that we would have to give up our table and our seats and peer over the shoulders and between the heads of the abnormally tall people standing a metre from the screen. We improvised bravely, sitting on tables, standing on the rungs of stools, standing near the stairs so we could see the screen upstairs...

As expected, the fans were vociferous and excitable and after a worrying bout of nerves for the first quarter of an hour Spain's attractive play encouraged the crowd further. It seems to be universally accepted that Spain deserved to win the match and most people seem to agree they were worthy winners of the tournament. I took particular delight in Spain's insistence that they needed to score the perfect goal, even after 92 minutes, when most teams would have been shielding the ball in the corner or passing it back to their keeper.

It's been exhausting and an organisational nightmare, and I've never been so sick of people standing in my line of sight, but I think it's been worth it...