Euro 2012 Scores: Why Spain's Win over France Wasn't That Impressive

Spain has advanced to the Euro 2012 semifinals after a victory over France, 2-0. Spain's win over France was obviously huge in the sense that it got them to the next step of the tournament, but La Roja must step up their game if they hope to win it all.

In 2006, France eliminated Spain from the FIFA World Cup and since then, La Roja went on to win Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup in succession. Spain wasn't about to allow France to repeat their success in 2006.

France held Spain scoreless for almost 20 minutes into the match until Xabi Alonso netted the first goal with a header that got past the French goaltender, Hugo Lloris.

Alonso's goal would be the only scoring the match would see until stoppage time.

One minute into the stoppage time, Pedro Rodriguez was fouled by Anthony Réveillère of France, which created a penalty chance for Spain. Alonso would bury the penalty in the left side of the net for his second goal and the clincher that sent Spain to the semifinals.

Why Spain's Win Wasn't That Impressive

On the surface, this looks like an impressive win for Spain over a team in France that deserved to be in the quarterfinals. However, digging deeper, this match really just proved Spain must work harder if they want to be champions.

The fact that Spain shut out France wasn't much of a surprise considering Les Blues only managed to score three goals in group play. The French didn't have much of an offensive attack to begin with and with Spain's defense having only allowed one goal in group play, clearly France's work was cut out for them before this match ever began.

France's last match in group play was against Sweden. The Swedes had their own problems stopping the ball from going into the net, having allowed five goals in their first two matches. But somehow Sweden's defense was good enough to shut out France in what was a sign of things to come for Les Blues' showdown with La Roja in the quarterfinals.

In regards to France belonging in the quarterfinals: Les Blues came out of Group D, which was one of the weaker groups in Euro 2012. Consisting of two bottom-feeders in Sweden and the Ukraine, Group D's best squad was England, who was even an underdog against the French team in their opening match showdown.

France's existence in the quarterfinals was more of a gift than something Les Blues had earned.

So clearly, France won't be the stiffest competition Spain faces moving forward.

La Roja dominated possession of the ball, having controlled it 55 percent of the time against France's 45. However, having squandered many opportunities with six offsides in the match, La Roja must make better of their chances against more elite squads.

Their next opponent, Portugal, is a much better offensive club. Spain will need all the scoring they can get in order to propel them to victory and can't expect the same result as the one against France if they can't get the ball cleanly past Portugal's defenders.

Portugal can put the ball into the net, having scored six goals thus far in the tourney (tied for second most) and having one of the greatest talents on the planet, Cristiano Ronaldo. In their match with the Czech Republic, Portugal had 20 attempts, with five on target.

That type of aggressive offense is a stark contrast to what Spain faced against France, who could only muster up four attempts, only one on target. Defensively, La Roja must be ready for an offensive onslaught the likes of which they haven't seen since their opening match against Italy which ended in a 1-1 tie.

France certainly isn't the best Spain will see and despite winning 2-0, La Roja will have to play even better if they hope to make it through the final four clubs en route to another European Championship.