Euro 2008 Quarterfinal Preview: Spain v. Italy

Three semifinalists are set down in stone now. One of them, Germany, was always expected to be there. The other two, Russia and Turkey, were picked by very few to get this far.

The final member of the foursome will be decided today, and either way it goes, it will be a football titan, each with their unique story. Italy, the world champions, are one of the oldest teams at Euro 2008. They started slowly, but have rebounded well. Spain, the perennial underachievers, started in blazing form and have been less impressive since, but have still managed to take all the points.

This is a matchup, position by position, that may be the best we see this tournament.

Between the posts, we have Gianluigi Buffon and Iker Casillas. Buffon is one of the best keepers in the world, with a resume at age 30 that most keepers would kill to retire with: 2 scudettos (that count), 2 Italian Supercups, 1 Coppa Italia, and a World Cup. Six times voted the best keeper in Serie A, he has come up with some absolute wonders of saves in this tournament already, singlehandedly keeping Italy alive in the match with Romania by saving Adrian Mutu’s penalty. His opponent Iker Casillas dominated La Liga this season, as the only keeper to allow less than a goal per match. Even when Real Madrid’s form was at its weakest, Casillas was a wall at the back. He has won four La Liga titles, and twice taken home of the few titles that Buffon is missing: the Champions League. On their day, we have what I consider to be two of the five or six best keepers on Earth on the same pitch.

On defense, the Italians are legendary, but they have struggled in this tournament to regain the old World Cup chemistry after the last-minute loss of Fabio Cannavaro. After early shuffling, the back line is now composed of Gianluca Zambrotta, Christian Panucci, Giorgio Chiellini, and Fabio Grosso. Panucci’s ability to score on set pieces adds an extra dimension to the side, and Grosso in particular has been excellent down the left, linking the Italian back and front lines brilliantly in the second and third matches. If there’s a weakest link here, it has been Zambrotta, whose mistake conceded the goal to Romania, but overall, the group is strong and has only gotten stronger as the tournament has gone on.

Spain’s defense is not of the same class as the Italian back four, and is never the star of the show for La Furia Roja. Sergio Ramos is one of the most attack-minded right backs in the game, but leaves a hole behind him. Center back Carles Puyol is the best pure defender on the side, and seems to have recovered from the knock that took him off early in the match with Sweden.

At midfield, there is fantastic talent on both sides. Italy has the best young defensive midfielder in the world in Daniele De Rossi, and further up the pitch, Simone Perrotta and Alberto Aquilani will be the axis of the Italian side. For Spain, maybe nothing says more about the quality of the midfield than the fact that Cesc Fabregas can’t even find a starting spot. Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Marcos Senna and David Silva will have the task of setting up the Spanish attack.

Speaking of attack, Spain comes into this match with the hot scoring foot in the tournament, David Villa. Villa followed up his hat trick against Russia with a game-winning goal against the Swedes, and leads all Euro scorers with those four. As if he wasn’t intimidating enough, his partner happens to be Fernando Torres, who has a Euro goal of his own to add to the 24 he scored for Liverpool this season.

Italy’s answer to Villa and Torres is their lone starting striker, Luca Toni. Toni has scored a goal so far at Euro 2008, but it didn’t count due to a bad offside call. As brilliant as his season was at Bayern Munich, he has struggled to find the net in June. Against Romania in particular, he was fed cross after cross, perfectly placed for his trademark header, and aside from his unfairly offside-ruled one, it was nothing doing. He’s a sleeping giant, and Spain know it. They just hope his form stays turned off for one more match.

There are two major missing pieces for Italy, Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso, who both miss this match because of accumulated yellow cards. Pirlo’s brilliant free kicks and passes, and Gattuso’s bulldog defending will be missed. If Spain can’t take advantage of their absence, the Italians could be the tournament favorite by the end of the day. They just seem to get stronger as tournaments go on, and now that we’re in the knockouts, it’s best not to bet against them.

Schedules

Spain
10/06/2008 - Russia W (4-1)
14/06/2008 - Sweden W (2-1)
18/06/2008 - Greece W (2-1)

Italy
09/06/2008 - Netherlands L (0-3)
13/06/2008 - Romania D (1-1)
17/06/2008 - France W (2-0)

Referee
Herbert Fandel (Germany)

Squads

Spain squad

Italy squad

Gear

Buy Spain team gear here.

Buy Italy team gear here.

Team Blogs

Join Elisa at the Spain Blog and Chris, Marco and Ricci at the Italy Blog.

Liveblog

Follow the Spain vs Italy LiveBlog here.

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