All The Goals of UEFA Euro 2008

Introduction:
When Spain triumphed in the final of Euro 2008, it began what would be an incredible summer for the country, as just weeks later, Rafael Nadal would take the Wimbledon tennis title, defeating Roger Federer in one of the greatest matches in modern tennis history. The Euro 2008 win was the first time that Spain had even been in a major football final, since the team lost to a Michel Platini-inspired France in Euro '84.

Therefore, "All The Goals of UEFA Euro2008" is an hour-long release showcasing just how Spain triumphed in the tournament, by way of compiling all of the 77 goals that were scored throughout. On show are strikes by familiar Premiership names, such as FernandoTorres (Liverpool), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), and Michael Ballack (Chelsea).

Video:
Video is presented in 16:9 anamorphic PAL (Region 0), and is excellent for a DVD of this genre. With its quick motion, sports events can often cause problems for DVD authors, but there's no such issue here, with what is an exceptionally clean picture, largely devoid of digital artefacts.

Audio:
Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, and is also very good. With what are basically television highlights here, the sound of the event itself, as well as the commentary, can be heard side-by-side, rather than with one impinging on the other.

There are further 2.0 tracks available in Dutch, German,Swedish, and French. There are also subtitles in Greek.



Extras:
For a quick football fix, the "Top 10 Saves" and the "Spain:Road to the Final" featurettes are just a few minutes of fun, which is more than really can be said for the official theme of the tournament, performed here by Enrique Iglesias. Much better, in fact, is the classical music piece here, showcasing some of the highlights of the tournament.


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Overall:
Though Euro 2008 ended only on 29th June,with so much football to concern oneself with even before the start of the Premiership campaign (a glut of televised pre-season friendlies, Olympic Games football etc.), it's easy to have already forgotten the who-did-whats of the tournament.

Rolling in at 67mins, "All The Goals of Euro 2008" provides a quick-fire recollection of events, for now, or for years down the line. There are some real moments to savour here, such as the success of the Turkish side who defied the odds to put Croatia out of the tournament. The Dutch also made an impression with memorable wins over Italy and France, the former by a remarkable 4-1 score-line.

If it is goal quality that you're after, there's plenty of fantastic football served up here, too. Pepe's goal for Portugal against Turkeyis a well-worked team effort, Wesley Sneijder's against Italy is a nod to the effectiveness of the quick counter attack, and it will take quite the strikefor Zlatan Ibrahimovic's long-range effort against Greece to find an equal.

Pleasantly, each of the goals here is afforded some time to show it's build-up, which is important since the goal finishes themselves mean little without the build-up. Each effort is also replayed several times fromdifferent angles, just as you would expect from regular television replays.

The only negative I can point out from this DVD release is that the penalty kicks which decided the contests between Croatia and Turkeyand Spain and Italy, are conspicuously missing here. Without them, it isn'tmade clear who advanced from the aforementioned contests.




Overall, though, "All The Goals of Euro 2008" does - to quote a famous advertisement - exactly what it says on the tin. As a reminder of the tournament, this is a release that every serious football fan will wish to own.