Fernando Torres scored in the 33rd minute and the Spaniards never backed down. Their last significant title came in the 1964 Euros at home.

"It is a privilege to be in the national team and live through the most beautiful moment of getting the cup," Torres said. "It will be good not only for Spain, but also for football because the team that played best won."

In beating a team that makes a habit of appearing in championship finals, the Spaniards put to rest a reputation for underachieving. Always loaded with talented players, Spain has spent 4 decades falling short of expectations.

That all changed at these Euros, where the Spaniards swept their first-round games, eliminated World Cup champion Italy in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals, then routed Russia, 3-0, in the semifinals.

"We have won in a brilliant way," coach Luis Aragones said. "We will be able to start saying we can win, a European Championhip as well as any other thing."

Against the highly accomplished Germans, they weren't intimidated. They got the one goal they needed - from a slumping striker - and set off chants of "ES-PANA," and "Ole, Ole Ole" at the final whistle.

The entire Spanish squad ran over to the huge rooting section of red and gold, exchanging hugs, while many of the spent Germans collapsed to the turf.

"It is to me the most important day in Spanish football in many, many years," said Torres, the former Atletico Madrid star who scored 33 goals in his first season with Liverpool in England's Premier League last season.

When Spain goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas accepted the trophy, the Spanish fans began chanting the melody to their national anthem, which has no words.

The Spaniards weren't close to finished with their celebration that was so long in the making. They marched to their rooting section, hoisting the cup and saluting their flag-waving, firecracker-exploding fans.

Germany has won three Euros and three World Cups, but was no match in this final. Captain Michael Ballack, questionable before the game with a calf injury, started but hardly was noticeable, except when he left the pitch for several minutes to have a bloody right eye treated.

"We had a great tournament, but made one mistake too many," Ballack said. "We were lacking of power against a great Spanish team. We couldn't keep up with them."

Torres came through off a brilliant feed from Xavi Hernandez. German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, at 38 the oldest player in the competition, charged from his net when he saw that defender Philipp Lahm was beaten on the right side. But Torres chipped the ball over the sliding Lehmann and into the gaping goal.

The crowd of 51,428 at Ernst Happel Stadium, split almost equally between Germany and Spain, might have expected the Spaniards to go into a protective shell. Instead, and even without tournament leading scorer David Villa (leg injury), they continued to carry the attack and were far more dangerous than Germany the rest of the way.

This was the last game for 69-year-old Aragones, the oldest coach to win the Euros. German coach Joachim Loew has a contract through the 2010 World Cup, but will need to find the spark Germany showed only periodically in Austria and Switzerland.

"The most important thing for our team is the manager,'' Torres said. "He has confidence in us and he lets us play. We have brought him the championshup in his last game for Spain and we are happy we could make this history for him."

Spain has never advanced to a World Cup championship game, and reached only one other Euros final, aside from the 1964 triumph, a loss to France in 1984. *