Spain won the silver medal in the Olympic games soccer tournament after losing in a thrilling final to Cameroon. The game went to a penalty shoot out after it had finished 2-2 after extra time, with Cameroon finally winning 5-3 from the spot kicks after Amaya's effort hit the bar. Spain took the lead with first half goals from Xavi and Gabri, but the Africans came back with two in the first fifteen minutes of the second half, including an own goal by Amaya and a strike by Mallorca's Eto'o. Mexican referee Ramos Rizo sent off Gabri and José Mari leaving the Spaniards with nine men for the whole period of extra time, but they hung bravely to take it to the wire. For full details of this and other matches click on the fixtures button below.

Spain qualified for the final phase after finishing high enough in the recent European under 21 championships, and the team was mainly made up of players who played in that tournament, although the decision was made by the Olympic committee not to include current full internationals under the age of 23 (Casillas, Gerard, Etxeberria, Raúl) nor any over-age players. An 18 man squad was named by under 21 manager Iñaki Sáez, who was in charge in Australia, details of which can be seen below.

As well as the Spanish players, ten other first division players represented their countries at the games, three of whom brought back medals (Eto'o and Geremi, gold with Cameroon; Santis bronze with Chile).The full list was as follows:
Okunowo (Barcelona), Edu and McCarthy (Celta), Bassir and Kouba (Deportivo), Santís (Espanyol/Murcia), Baiano and Alvaro (Las Palmas), Eto'o (Mallorca) and Geremi (Real Madrid). Another member of the Brazilian squad, Fabio Aurelio had just signed for Valencia and joined the club after the games.