Even though this was our third trophy in four years, I’ll never get tired of the sight of Iker Casillas lifting a beautiful cup up.

ONE.  The final whistle blew, and the bench players exploded out onto the field.

Some of them made a beeline for specific players (and the game balls I suppose, though Andrés carried one home the next day), while others gathered in a circle.  Iker, meanwhile, was busy consoling the Italian players, and that was very touching to see.  Several of the other players, including Sergio Ramos, did that as well.  I also loved that our players lined up to give Italy the honor guard later on!

But back to the Spain celebration.  I loved seeing Pedro trying to make a space for himself, and Xabi dancing with PF!

¡Piña!

Vicente del Bosque said later on he had told David Villa and Carles Puyol to go celebrate with the team, but they preferred to hang out in the tunnel.

TWO.  After the initial celebrations, many of the players went to look for their families.  Sergio Busquets found his, including his lookalike brother Aitor, while Gerard Piqué got a hug and kiss from his mom.  Later on, when he brought the trophy over so that he could take a picture with his parents and brother, he couldn’t find his mom anymore, so he went “¡Mamá!  Mamá!

THREE.  Álvaro Arbeloa had his hands full with his daughter Alba, who seemed to be admiring the escudo, and his adorable nephew Yago, while Luca Reina and Aitana Negredo were handed down to their dads.  Grecia and Alma would follow suit.

Nora (sporting the most adorable hairstyle) and Leo Torres came down to join papá Fernando.  Although they initially seemed to be more interested in their hands than anything else…

… they soon got distracted by other things.

More kiddies!  Sergio was joined by his niece Daniela, while Enzo Cazorla rode around on his dad’s shoulders.

It was like a daycare center out there!

FOUR.  As for the players who didn’t have kids, well, they improvised.  Iker swept up his old friend Enzo Miñano for a big hug – notice that Enzo is wearing a mini replica of Iker’s kit – while Sergio Busquets tried to get Oliver Torres to give him a high five (and Víctor Valdés hugged Damián García).

FIVE.  I loved the tributes to those four men who passed away too early – Antonio Puerta, Dani Jarque, Manolo Preciado and Miki Roqué.  Sergio wore the same Puerta shirt that he had worn in the 2008 Eurocopa celebrations, with an image of Antonio, while Jesús Navas put on a practice shirt that had the words “Antonio Puerta, always with us” written on it.  Pepe put on a Miki Roqué Betis jersey backwards, so the name was on the front.  Álvaro Negredo also donned a shirt for Miki, while Cesc had all four names printed on a specially made shirt.  Cesc said during a post-game interview that they had all thought about these four men a lot, while others dedicated this win to them.  These types of gestures really show what kind of players we have, no?  I’m so proud of them.

SIX.  Then came the trophy presentation.  Apparently, Michel Platini wanted to give Iker the trophy up in the box, but Iker insisted that he wanted to be amongst his teammates when the trophy was handed to him.  Of course, he got his wish.  And I love that there was a little platform for Iker to stand on, so he that he could be above everyone else and would not have to put himself in a precarious position and have Sergio or the king of Spain hold on to him while he lifted up the trophy!

More moments from the presentation.

SEVEN.  The team then headed back down to the field, with Gerard Piqué carrying the trophy down.  They posed for the traditional foto de familia at center field, with all of the members of the team, including the coaching staff, delegates, fisios, equipment managers, etc.

Looking good!  And I’m sure it pleased Eva Silva that David was once again not front and center.

EIGHT.  Then came time for the players to get their pictures taken with their new shiny object of desire.  The madridistas got together to pose for one picture and Javi Martínez (!!!) tried to join them, not realizing what was going on (please let it be a Freudian slip).  Xabi had to push him away and Juanfran also helped to usher Javi (!!!) out of the way.  Jajaja!  Another group that posed for a picture together was made up of Gerard Piqué, Pepe Reina, Fernando Llorente and Iker Casillas.  Xavi joined them at the last moment.

The two captains and very good friends posed together as well!

Some of the other players also posed together according to club allegiance – Javi (!!!) and Fer, for example – or home province – David and Pedro represented the Canary Islands, while PF Juan Mata and Santi Cazorla did the same for Asturias.  And as you can see, many of them sported flags of their hometowns or provinces, while others preferred to show their allegiance to Spain as a whole.

There were solo poses as well.

NINE.  The team also did a lap around the stadium – led by Iker of course – to thank all the fans who had traveled to Ukraine to cheer them on.

And the lap always has to end with a slide across the field, no?  I love how Javi’s (!!!) Ayegui flag became a cape at this moment!

TEN.  The niños were also a big part of the celebration.  Look at Fernando Llorente being all adorable with Luca Reina!

The niños – and El Niño – had a great time playing in the confetti.

These moments also included PF Juan Mata dumping confetti on Jon Alonso, Xabi playing in the confetti with Ane and Jontxu (the only kids not to wear the red shirt), Grecia Reina tossing handfuls into the air and Daniela Ramos letting go of her uncle’s hand to run towards the shiny things (I see she inherited that from Sergio).

Maybe Jesús was getting practice for his imminent paternity by hanging around the children – Ane Alonso, Jon Alonso, Fernando Llorente, Alma Reina, Grecia Reina, Daniela Ramos, Leo Torres, Nora Torres, Fernando Torres…

More moments.  Juanfran Torres surrounded by eight kids, and Fernando Llorente encouraging Luca Reina to walk!  Adorable!  Fer looked up at Pepe with such a proud expression on his face when Luca managed a few steps!

Grecia is adorable.

I really can’t distinguish between the adults and the children here.

¡Vivan los enanos!

ELEVEN.  I love this photo because the kids are looking all serious, while the adults are being a bit crazy.

TWELVE.  And this moment was adorable!  After the adults (I’m using that word loosely) had finished jumping around, Nora Torres approached her father, got his attention, and threw some confetti in his face!  Jajaja!!!!  And notice that her doll is tucked into Fernando’s flag at his back!

THIRTEEN.  It wasn’t just the children who got the boys’ attention.  Their better halves got rewarded for their support as well!  From Iker and Sara…

… to Olalla and Fer, Cesc and Daniella…

… Álvaro and Carlota…

… Xabi and Nagore, and Fernando and María.  We haven’t seen too much of María during Fernando’s time with La Roja, and when I saw her this time, she reminded me of Rafa Nadal’s girlfriend Xisca, because they’re both so discrete and low key, and because they also look a bit alike, in my opinion.

FOURTEEN.  Gerard Piqué has made this his trademark: emulating basketball players and cutting down the net after winning a championship.

FIFTEEN.  And this is Sergio’s trademark celebration contribution (with due respect to Raúl): his passes with the bullfighting cape!  His good friend and bullfighter Alejandro Talavante had sent over the cape which he had used to such good effect that he was able to leave Las Ventas by the “Puerta Grande” at the beginning of June.

¡Olé!

By the way, Sergio later gave his medal to his mother so she could wear it!  She was also wearing his jersey, although instead of “Ramos” she had “P. Ramos” on the back for Paqui, I guess.

SIXTEEN.  Before the celebration wound down, many of the players posed alongside their families with the Cup (though Enzo doesn’t appear to be too impressed by it), and it seems that Carol Martín played the part of photographer, except of course when she was in the photo.

Many of the other wives/girlfriends/children joined in at this point.  Besides the aforementioned children, we also had Raúl Albiol’s nephew Thiago.

SEVENTEEN.  Some of the famous faces at the game, including PM Mariano Rajoy, Prince Felipe and Plácido Domingo – joined the team in the locker room.

While Iker was busy chugging cava straight from the bottle, Víctor Valdés was keeping Nora entertained with magic tricks!  I love how PF Juan Mata is just as enthralled as Nora!  Alvarete del Bosque was there as well, and Gerard also said that Pepe Reina had been dancing in the locker room…

EIGHTEEN.  The boys also tweeted many photos from the locker room, yay!!!!!!!

Sergio gets bonus points for being shirtless, while Iker gets my eternal gratitude for posting this photo of him wearing just underwear.  The saint has completed yet another miracle!!!!!!!  And Javi (!!!) and Fer are so adorable!  By the way, Sergio tweeted another photo where he was making the letter “L” with his hands (for Lara) and wrote, “here it is… for you, for me, for us.  Thank you for always being there.  I love yo ua lot.  S&L.”  Good thing he didn’t find a girlfriend who name started with H or K!

Iker posted the best photos of the night.

More photos of the players with the Cup…

… and they also helped each other to take the photos.

NINETEEN.  The Xabi Alonso pose section.™

TWENTY.  Andrés Iniesta was named the MVP of this game, the third one he received in this tournament (he was also voted the best player against Italy in the group stage and against Croatia).  He was also named the best player of the entire tournament, taking over from Xavi.

Meanwhile, Sergio finished on top of the Castrol Edge ranking with a score of 9.68.  Piqué, Xabi, Iniesta, Alba, Arbeloa and Busquets also finished in the top 10.

Ten of the players – Iker, PIqué, Sergio, Alba, Xabi, Busquets, Xavi, Silva, Cesc and Iniesta – made UEFA’s team of the best 23 players of the tournament.

This championship also belongs to David Villa, Carles Puyol, Pablo Hernández, Thiago, Borja Valero, Joan Capdevila, Aritz Aduriz, Bruno Soriano, Carlos Marchena, Andoni Iraola and Nacho Monreal, who had all played in the qualifiers.

La Roja also set a record for the highest television audience, as 15.48 million people in Spain watched the game, making it the most viewed game in history.  The golden minute came at 22:32 (near the end of the game) when the number of people watching hit 17.889 million (90 percent).

TWENTY ONE.  ¡Otra vez campeón!