Is 'boring' Spain the best of them all?

A comprehensive 4-0 victory over a strong Italy side that came after one of the most exhilarating 45-minute displays I've ever seen puts Vicente del Bosque's record-breaking team up there with the very finest the game has produced.

Spain is probably better and more clinical than Franz Beckenbauer's West Germany of 1972 and 1974 and Zinedine Zidane's France of 1998 and 2000.

Perhaps it is even superior to Pele's 1970 Brazil team that for a long time has been seen as the benchmark of football excellence.

Today's Spain, led by peerless midfielders-cum-strikers-cum-everything Xabi Alonso, Xavi Hernandez, David Silva, Cesc Fabregas and Andres Iniesta, certainly is not inferior to any one of those super sides of yesteryear.

Del Bosque's matadors have taken the bull by the horns with their mesmerising tiki-taka game to become the first team in history to win three straight major titles and with a magnificent style to match.

The closest anyone came to do this were West Germany and Brazil.

The Germans won the 1972 European championship and 1974 World Cup but lost the 1976 European final to Czechoslovakia on penalties.

And Brazil won the Copa America in 1997 and 1999 but lost the 1998 World Cup final to France.

Spain's feat of landing the 2008 European title in Austria and Switzerland, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and now EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine will be very difficult, if not impossible, to emulate.

Who now would be brave enough to dismiss La Roja's chances of making it four in a row at the World Cup in Brazil in two years?

Some critics unfairly - make that foolishly - accused Iker Casillas's team that has given immense joy to the football world of being boring.

Well, if these superbly gifted Spaniards who have taken the game to a new level are boring and predictable then may they never ever entertain any silly ideas about becoming exciting.

One hopes that the awesome display in Kiev will have put that ridiculous theory to bed once and for all.

I'm sure that every team in the world would just love to be as 'dull' as Spain is at the moment.

As I'm equally convinced that if Australia played as well and won as much as these unexciting characters from Spain the Socceroos would never be described as 'boring' or 'dull' by people here who might prefer an Anglo style of 100 miles an hour football that goes nowhere.

Italy did very well to reach the final and it should not let this debacle cloud the fact that there is a new spirit surrounding its much maligned Calcio.

We saw signs in the UEFA Champions League that Serie A is beginning to get its act together.

AC Milan and Napoli this season gave glimpses of what Serie A used to be more than a decade ago and the Azzurri's overall performance in this high-quality European championship will have added fuel to the belief that the fire of passion still burns in this proud football nation.

Cesare Prandelli's men provided some of the highlights of the tournament and should go home with their heads held high.

Italy's 2010 World Cup shambles seems a million miles away now.

The Azzurri gave it their best shot but against such high-class opposition as Spain's there is only so much you can do.