Spain's Euro 2012 winning captain Iker Casillas has praised the way in which his side have coped with high expectation.
Vicente del Bosque's men thrashed Italy 4-0 in last night's Kiev final to reinforce their reputation as one of the greatest teams of all time.
Since being crowned champions of Europe in Vienna four years ago, Spain have only lost two competitive matches - 2-0 to the USA in the Confederations Cup semi-final in 2009 and 1-0 to Switzerland in the group stages of World Cup 2010, which they went on to win.
Casillas said: "There will always be some criticism as we have set the bar so high that that's what happens when you come down a step.
"It's been four marvellous years.
"You might think that a 4-0 margin against Italy means it was easy, but we have been gradually stepping up as the tournament went along."
Spain have not conceded a goal in their last 10 knockout matches in major international tournaments.
Robert Summerscales
