Spain converted four of five attempts while Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas made two saves to send his team to the semifinals. The victory was well deserved for the Spanish team as they gained an upper hand over Italy in the 120 minutes of action. The Spanish team had 26 shots to Italy's 12 and were superior in ball possession (57%-43%) in the match which was played in a sluggish way.
The Spanish team just couldn't break the Italian defence line led by veteran defender Christian Panucci and Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon also put up several superb saves. The world champions played the match without suspended midfielder Anrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso and that cost them dearly.
Italy also had their chance of scoring though but Daniele De Rossi's shot after a melee in Spanish area was blocked by Casillasat the 61st minute.
In the penalty shootout, Casillas denied the attempts from De Rossi and Antonio di Natale. Buffon also punched out the shot from Daniel Guiza. It was the second quarterfinal match which was decided by penalty shootout at Euro 2008 and the only last eight game won by group leaders.
Earlier in the quarterfinals, Germany beat Portugal 3-2, Turkey beat Croatia 4-2 (after penalty shootout) and Russia beat the Netherlands 3-1.
The Euro 2008 will resume on Wednesday with Germany playing Turkey in the semifinals. The other semifinal match will be played between Russia and Spain on Thursday.
