Euro 2008: Spain 0-0 Italy (Spain win 4-2 on penalties)

When it went to a penalty shoot-out, the Spain players shook their heads and grimaced at each other.

Three times on this date down the decades, they have lost in the quarter-finals of major tournaments on spot-kicks. Three times, their nerve has failed them when it mattered most.

So when it went to penalties here in the Ernst Happel Stadion, they weren't just fighting cynical old Italy. They were fighting history and their own self-doubts.

But this time, Spain held their nerve. This time, after Italy had blighted the tournament with their delaying tactics and their playacting and their negativity, it was the world champions who cracked.

When Iker Casillas saved a second Italy penalty, it fell to Arsenal's midfield genius Cesc Fabregas to make the long walk to try to win the game for Spain.

Fabregas picked the ball up and whispered to it as if he was begging it to find the net. It didn't let him down, nestling in the corner as the world's best goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon flung himself the other way.

And so a generation of selfloathing in Spanish football was released into the warm night air, the Spanish fans behind the goal went wild with joy and Fabregas was buried by a mountain of teammates.

Now everything seems possible again for the Spanish who will play Russia here on Thursday in a semi-final that will be a battle of this tournament's great entertainers.

By winning last night, they struck a blow for the spirit of this tournament and banished the only bad fairy at the feast.

Italy had ignored that spirit and tried to win ugly. They tried to stifle Spain's flair. They tried to strike a blow for the old order. They'd reverted to their old ways and tried to win by frustrating a better team.

They went through their full repertoire. Luca Toni looked like he'd been taking lessons from Didier Drogba in the art of flinging himself to the floor when brushed by a feather.

Antonio di Natale went for the old favourite of halting a Spanish counter-attack by crawling back on to the pitch after falling under an innocuous challenge and then writhing around in apparent agony.

Generally, they chopped, tugged, grabbed, wrestled, scythed and gesticulated their way through the most boring, negative performance of Euro 2008.

Thankfully, they got what they deserved. Spain lit up this tournament early on with their attacking demolition of Russia and they stayed true to their philosophy last night.

David Villa and Fernando Torres never stopped trying to conjure the breakthrough their attitude and their effort merited but on the rare occasions they did escape Italian shackles, they fluffed their opportunities.

They were already indebted to Casillas before the shoot-out. The Real Madrid keeper kept them in thegamewith an instinctive second half save from Mauro Camoranesi.

Toni ruined his side's other best chance when he tried to execute an absurdly ambitious overhead kick and only succeeded in taking the ball away from Fabio Grosso who had the goal at his mercy.

But even though Spain had launched wave after wave of attacks and dominated possession, they had created very few clear-cut opportunities.

They came closest to breaking the deadlock late in normal time when a shot from Marcos Senna squirmed under the body of Buffon and span back on to his left hand post.

Whenthe whistle blew at the end of 120 minutes, the Spanish players looked crestfallen.

A mile away from the stadium, the famous old ferris wheel in the Prater park is decorated with a giant image of Petr Cech, the Czech goalkeeper.

But now it should be Casillas up there with his arms spread out like spokes. Last night, he didn't just block two Italy penalties. He turned back history.

Spain: Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Marchena, Puyol, Capdevila, Iniesta (Cazorla 59), Senna, Xavi (Fabregas 59), Silva, Villa, Torres (Guiza 85).
Italy: Buffon, Zambrotta, Panucci, Chiellini, Grosso, Aquilani (Del Piero 108), De Rossi, Ambrosini, Perrotta (Camoranesi 58), Toni, Cassano (Di Natale 75).