In the 24 years since Spain have last played in a major tournament final, the country has acquired a reputation for underachieving, never going beyond quarterfinals despite playing some sumptuous football at times.

Having finally lifted the curse at the sixth time of asking, and against the world champions no less, winning against Italy in a competitive match for the first time in 88 years, only one match stands between this current crop of Spanish players and the Henri Delaunay trophy.

Spain has been perhaps the most consistent team at the Euro 2008 and go into the final as slight favourites against a German team that, with the exception of the quarterfinal match against Portugal, has failed to impress.

Even though Germany has shown only glimpses of the well-oiled machine that has won the country three European titles in the past, more than any other country, the words of former England striker Gary Lineker sum it up best - "Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes, and at the end the Germans always win."

Spain will be without David Villa, current top scorer at Euro 2008 with four goals, who will miss the match after sustaining a calf injury half-way into the semi-final with Russia. He is likely to be replaced by Cesc Fabregas, which will be only the second start for the Arsenal midfielder at this tournament.

Fabregas has been used as an impact substitute by manager Luis Aragones and his inclusion against Russia proved pivotal, as he supplied the final pass for Spain's second and third goals.

One man who will be key against Germany, however, is Brazilian-born defensive midfielder Marcos Senna, playing in front of the back four. Included in the Spanish squad after a great season for Villareal, his able efforts to negate opposing forwards before they get too close to Iker Casillas' goal has been one of the main reasons behind Spain's success so far.

After a stellar job neutralising Andrei Arshavin in the semi-final, his task will now be to restrict the freedom of Michael Ballack, who in turn has orchestrated Germany's progress to the final. As against Portugal, Germany is likely to play 4-5-1, as manager Joachim Loew looks to flood the midfield and reduce the space available to his opponents, disrupting the patient build-up play that has proved so successful for Spain so far in this tournament.

With Villa out, Spain will have to rely on the pace of Fernando Torres, which could cause numerous problems for Germany's cumbersome central defence pairing of Per Mertesacker and Christof Metzelder, while at the other end Carles Puyol and Carlos Marchena will be tested by the attacking trio of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski.

One can only hope that neither team will set out to play too defensively. Euro 2008 has been cracking so far and it deserves a dramatic final to secure a place as one of the best tournaments in recent history.