Spain had hoped to avoid a Euro 2008 quarter-final clash with world champions Italy but their worst fears were realised when the Azzurris defied the odds and made it through with a 2-0 win over France.

“At this stage of the tournament any opponent was going to be difficult but they aren’t the team I would have most liked to have met,” Spain coach Luis Aragones told the Spanish Federation’s web page (www.rfef.es).

“We all know what Italy are like and it is not for nothing that they are world champions. That tells us everything. They seemed dead and buried and now they are in the quarter-finals.”

Spain will play Italy at the Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna on Sunday following the Italians’ victory over France in Zurich on Tuesday.

Italy know how to cope with the good and bad times and their history shows that they have some enormously talented and hard-working players. Defensively they are almost perfect.

Spain beat Italy 1-0 in a Euro 2008 warm-up in March but have never beaten them at a major soccer tournament outside the Olympics.

The last time the two sides met at a major tournament was in the quarter-finals of the 1994 World Cup in the United States. Italy claimed a 2-1 victory after a late strike by Roberto Baggio but the game ended in controversy.