Spain steeled for Italy challenge

The final quarter-final at UEFA EURO 2008™ brings together two former winners in Spain and Italy, both of them bidding to add to their one and only success on the European stage. For Spain it is an opportunity to make the last four for the first time since 1984 while Italy are bidding for their second semi-final berth in three EURO tournaments.

• Spain began their Austria-Switzerland campaign as if determined to make up for past disappointments, ramming four goals past Russia in Innsbruck with David Villa (20, 44, 75) becoming the first player since 2000 to score a hat-trick on this illustrious stage. The Valencia CF striker then set up the fourth goal for Cesc Fàbregas (90+1) after Roman Pavlyuchenko (86) had reduced the deficit .

• Villa worked his magic again four days later by scoring the winner in the 92nd minute against Sweden at the same Stadion Tivoli Neu which guaranteed their progression to the quarter-finals as winners of Group D. Fernando Torres (15) had put Spain ahead but the lead was cancelled out before half-time by Zlatan Ibrahimović (34).

• Spain maintained their momentum on the final night of first-round action thanks to another late winner, this time by Daniel Güiza two minutes from the end of their encounter with Greece. Luis Aragonés's team fell behind to an Angelos Charisteas (42) effort before half-time but got back on track with Rubén de la Red's 61st-minute equaliser.

• While Spain will be buoyed by winning all three group games, omen-seekers may note that no team has gone on to lift the Henri Delaunay trophy after a 100 per cent start since France in 1984.

• Italy's impact on the tournament's opening round was considerably less dynamic, Robert Donadoni's men going down 3-0 to the Netherlands in their opening game in Berne. The Azzurri were then lucky to escape with a 1-1 draw against Romania – Gianluigi Buffon superbly saved Adrian Mutu's 81st-minute penalty which would have sent the world champions home early. Earlier Mutu (55) had put Romania ahead but Christian Panucci levelled within 60 seconds.

• Italy went into their final game in Group C needing to beat France and hope Romania slipped up against the Netherlands. They got the result they needed through Andrea Pirlo's 25th-minute penalty and second through Daniele De Rossi (62) to secure qualification as runners-up behind the Dutch.

• There is little to choose between the two countries in terms of head-to-head records. In a total of 29 games dating back to September 1920, Spain have won ten, Italy nine and there have been ten draws.

• Those figures include four Olympic Games tournament matches. Without them, Spain lead 9-7 with nine draws.

• The teams have met twice before at the UEFA European Championship finals. After a goalless draw in a group-stage match in Milan at the 1980 tournament, they played each other again in Frankfurt at the same stage eight years later. Current Italy coach Donadoni featured in that game, which was won by Gianluca Vialli's solitary strike in the 73rd minute.

• Spain have had the better of the teams' recent games, all friendlies, with two wins and two draws. The most recent fixture came in Elche in March this year, when Villa's goal with 12 minutes remaining secured a 1-0 win.

• The teams that night were:
Spain: Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos (Álvaro Arbeloa), Carles Puyol (Raúl Albiol), Carlos Marchena, Joan Capdevila, Marcos Senna (Xabi Alonso), Andrés Iniesta, Xavi Hernández, Cesc Fàbregas (Luis Garcia), David Silva (Alberto Riera), Fernando Torres (David Villa).
Italy: Gianluigi Buffon, Christian Panucci (Gianluca Zambrotta), Fabio Cannavaro, Marco Materazzi (Andrea Barzagli), Fabio Grosso, Andrea Pirlo (Gennaro Gattuso), Daniele De Rossi, Mauro Camoranesi, Simone Perrotta (Alberto Aquilani), Antonio Di Natale (Vincenzo Iaquinta), Luca Toni (Marco Borriello).

• The last encounter between the sides at a major tournament came in Boston at the quarter-final stage of the 1994 FIFA World Cup when an Italian side, again including Donadoni, triumphed 2-1. The two Baggios, Dino and Roberto, scored the goals that day either side of a Spanish equaliser by José Luis Caminero. 

• These sides are also familiar foes at youth level, with a number of players in each UEFA EURO 2008™ squad heaving featured in memorable fixtures. In 2001, Torres scored as Spain shared a 1-1 draw with an Italy side featuring Alberto Aquilani and Giorgio Chiellini in the UEFA European Under-16 Championship quarter-final in Katerini. Torres and Aquilani also scored in the resulting penalty shoot-out, won 4-3 by Spain who went on to lift the trophy.

• The teams also met in the 1995 European U18 Championship final, Massimo Ambrosini, Pirlo and Buffon – the latter two as substitutes - all playing in Italy's 4-1 defeat by Spain in Sunderland.

• There was more success for Italy in the European U21 Championship final in 1996, Panucci playing 120 minutes as Spain were beaten 4-2 in a penalty shoot-out after a 1-1 draw in Barcelona. Buffon was an unused substitute.

• Gianluca Zambrotta, who has agreed to sign for AC Milan at the end of these finals, has spent the past two seasons in Spain with FC Barcelona. His team-mates there included Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta.

• Antonio Cassano spent time at Real Madrid CF between 2005/06 and 2007/08 where his club colleagues included Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos and De la Red. Panucci was also at the Santiago Bernabéu between the 1996/97 and the 1998/99 seasons.

• Italy's third-in-line goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis joined Sevilla FC in Spain from Udinese Calcio last summer. At the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán he is the understudy to Andrés Palop, Spain's own third-choice keeper.

• Italy won the 2006 World Cup final on penalties but their overall shoot-out record is mixed, their only other victory having come against the Netherlands in the semi-finals of UEFA EURO 2000™. They had previously lost shoot-outs to Argentina (1990 World Cup semi-final), Brazil (1994 World Cup final) and France (1998 World Cup quarter-final).

• Spain have contested four penalty shoot-outs previously, losing to Belgium in the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals and to England at the same stage of EURO '96™ before beating the Republic of Ireland on spot-kicks in the last 16 of the 2002 World Cup. However, they then lost 5-3 in the shoot-out to the Korea Republic after a goalless draw in the quarter-finals.

• Spain are playing at their fourth successive EURO finals. Runners-up in 1984, they won the European crown in 1964 when they beat the USSR 2-1 on home soil in Madrid.

• Spain reached the quarter-finals of the 1960, 1964, 1968 and 1976 UEFA European Championships and attained the same stage at EURO '96™ and UEFA EURO 2000™.

• Italy's best performance in the UEFA European Championship came in 1968 when they beat Yugoslavia to lift the Henri Delaunay trophy. They were runners-up in 2000 and semi-finalists in 1988 with a team featuring Donadoni himself.

• Italy reached the quarter-finals of the 1968 and 1972 UEFA European Championships but have not been in the last eight since UEFA EURO 2000™.

• The winners of this tie will meet the winners of the quarter-final tie between Group C winners the Netherlands and Russia, the runners-up in Group D, in the second semi-final, at Vienna's Ernst-Happel-Stadion on Thursday 26 June.

• The winners of that game will be the designated away team for the final in Vienna on 29 June.

• There is no third-place play-off game in the UEFA European Championship.