Spain On Fire
Luis Aragones’ men are on fire, roaring into the last eight after finishing top of Group D with maximum points. They have scored eight goals in three games, and will go into this match as many people’s favourites to progress to the semi-finals.
Spain have indeed won all seven of their fixtures in 2008, including pre-Euro 2008 warm-up wins against France, U.S.A, Peru, and Italy themselves.
The question now is – will Spain once again flop when it really matters? We have seen this scenario so many times in the past where La Seleccion have made a flying start to a major tournament, only to then lose their nerve once it gets to a big knockout game.
This was the case at the last World Cup, when Spain played some delightful football in the group stages, only to then lose 3-1 to France in the second round.
Spain are certainly in better form than Italy, but they have a dreadful competitive record against their opponents. There is also the small matter of the so-called June 22 curse. Spain have exited three major tournaments on penalties on this exact date in recent history, losing to Belgium at World Cup ’86, England at Euro ’96, and South Korea at World Cup 2002.
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