Spain beat Germany 1-0 to win soccer's European Championship, ending a 44-year wait for a major international title.
El Niño Torres scored after 33 minutes at Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, giving Spain its second European Championship. Its first came in 1964. Spain's Luis Aragones, at age 69 years and 338 days, becomes the oldest coach to lead a team to the title. Spain hadn't advanced beyond the quarterfinals since finishing as runner-up 24 years ago.
A stunning second half performance from Spain - inspired by substitute Cesc Fábregas - sees them through to the Euro 2008 final against Germany in Austria on Sunday. After a quiet and edgy first half, the loss of Spain's leading scorer David Villa through injury appeared to be something of a blessing in disguise, as Arsenal midfielder Fábregas came on to take control of the midfield and lead his side to victory, creating two of the three goals. After Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernández had opened the scoring in the 50th minute, substitute Daniel Guiza made it 2-0 on 73 minutes, before David Silva rounded off the evening with eight minutes remaining.¨
Next sunday Germany is waiting... go Spain!
Watch the new diorama about the battle of Los Arapiles (a.k.a. the battle of Salamanca) fought during the Peninsular War. It has been built by Warmodelling (the owners of Fantassin Miniatures) for the Museum of Los Arapiles.
The photo is taken from The Miniatures Page site.
Spain beat Italy 4-2 on penalties to reach the semi-finals of Euro 2008 after an agonic goalless draw in Vienna. Marcos Senna came closest in normal time when Italy keeper Gianluigi Buffon fumbled his shot on to a post.
Spain keeper Iker Casillas was the hero in the shoot-out, saving from Daniele de Rossi and Antonio di Natale. Daniel Guiza saw his spot-kick saved by Buffon, but Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas slid home the crucial penalty to set up a last four clash with Russia.
The game never touched the heights and penalties was an almost inevitable outcome given the approach of both sides.
With a small delay, I celebrate the 193th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, the end of our Napoleonic era. Watch this video from the Rene Betgen's site: "Battle of Waterloo".
The site contains several wonderful Waterloo dioramas. Enjoy!
Harris (the man behind HäT industries) has sent me a gift, a test sprue from one of the next HäT releases: Napoleonic French pontoon bridge (Reference 8108) due for July 2008.
A pontoon bridge or floating bridge is a bridge that floats on water, supported by barge-or-boat-like pontoons to support the bridge deck and its dynamic loads. During the Napoleonic Wars, the pontoon trains, i.e. the carriages of the pontoons and the materials they carried for making a pontoon bridge, where a very important assets and all armies had at least one of two. The pontoon bridges played an important role in the battle of Aspern-Essling (1809).
The French pontooniers were a mix of Artillery workers, fishermen and boatmen. Their uniform followed the Foot Artillery style. They covered themselves with glory at the Berezina crossing when, under tthe command of Eblé, they built a trestled bridge, allowing the retreat of the last remnants of the Grande Armee.
David Villa scored in stoppage time to hand Spain a 2-1 win over Sweden today, giving Spain two wins in its first two games at Euro 2008.
Fernando Torres opened the scoring in the 15th minute for the Spanish, but his goal was canceled out by a Zlatan Ibrahimovic strike in the 34th minute to even the match.
It looked like the two teams were headed for a draw, but Joan Capdevila sent a long clearance out of the back up the left wing that skipped past Fernando Torres and the Swedish defense and into the box.
Villa got to it first, touched the ball around Sweden defender Petter Hansson, and slotted his shot inside the far post to give Spain a dramatic win.
The narrative and pictures of the battle of Goldberg, a.k.a the first battle of Katzbach, fought in August 23, 1813 between the Macdonald's Army of the Bober (under the temporary command of Lauriston) and the Bluecher's Russo-Prussian Army of Silesia have been posted at the main web-site: The battle of Goldberg
A hat-trick by David Villa helped Spain to a 4-1 win over Russia in their Euro 2008 opener on today tuesday june 10.
Villa grabbed his first when he steered the ball into an open goal after fellow striker Fernando Torres drew goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev out of his net in the 20th minute. He added the second before halftime, stroking the ball home after being put through by Andres Iniesta, before making it 3-0 when he tucked in a low shot after jinking past a defender on 75 minutes. Russia pulled a goal back through Roman Pavlyuchenko before substitute Cesc Fabregas headed Spain's fourth in injury time. Spain made a confident start to the Group D tie under stormy skies at the Tivoli Neu stadium. in Innsbruk
The battle of Goldberg (a.k.a the first battle of the Katzbach) is finished in a stalemate situation. The French have crossed the Katzbach in front of the Russian opposition and also they have Nieder-Au. However, the Lauriston's V Corps is fully disorganized and given the lack of cavalry, Macdonald (which arrived near the end of the battle) stopped the French advance, searching the shelter of the woods and heights close to the river crossings.
Watch the main site for the Battle in pictures.
During the battle of Goldberg the commander of the 2nd Prussian Brigade (Yorck's 1st Prussian Corps), Prince Karl von Mecklenburg-Strelitz, put himself at the head of the 2/1st East prussian Infantry regiment, and carrying the regimental flag in his own hands, pushed back a French attack allowing the escape of three prussian guns. This fact was immortalized by Knötel in a famous picture.
Incidentally, the wargaming re-fight of Goldber continues on.
Thanks to Stryker's Hinton Hunt Vintage Wargaming , I have discovered the Harry Pearson's superb Vintage20mil site: "a site dedicated to 20 mm wargames figures of yesteryear".
The site presents information not only about figures not-easily available, but also about manufacturers currently marketing 20 mm metal figures (Go to the Manufacturers page).
Although metal figrues are expensive items, they are a good complement for their cheaper plastic comrades (see the Gneisenau post)
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