Spain breaks hoodoo

Fabregas and Villa runs over to celebrate with a jubilant Casillas

It was goalless for 120 minutes, nothing to separate them and it had to be the penalties. Spain attacked till to death and Italy defended till to death, and thus nullifying each other in the process. Italy started the match without their regular center midfield partnership of Pirlo and Gattuso as they are being suspended from the previous match. Spain on the other hand fielded their strongest 11 on the field. Italy held their ground well with their classic trademark defensive play but there were a couple of times when Spain managed to get through using counterattack. Most of the Spanish shots were relegated to outside the box with attempts commonly by Silva and Villa. The Spanish became so desperate at times that they are willing to try anything including diving to avoid the dreaded penalty shootout. Of course, the referee would have none of that nonsense and promptly booked Villa when he tried to do that.

Italy's insistence in depending on Luca Toni as the main target man would be the death of their aspirations. Again, I want to reiterate that club football is different from international football. Luca Toni is has been superb in his time at Bayern but the group matches have already illustrated that he's incapable of causing much damage. He tries and tries but ends up looking embarassing especially when he tried to do too much at one point by attempting to execute a bicycle kick. With no hope at the front and with the lack of the playmaking skills of Pirlo, the Italians could only try to defend as much as they could and hope that they have a lucky break. Well, Deutschland was one step smarter when they decided to axe their so called "star striker" Mario Gomez to ensure that they had a chance in the quarters..lol

There was a "lol moment" when Buffon apparently spilled Silva's shot while catching it. The ball slowly rolled towards the goal line to his horror and he quickly got up and rushed back to grab it. Actually, he was one second late but fortunately for him, the ball slowly rolled and.....hit the crossbar...hahaha.

The penalty shootout proceeded after both managers have submitted the list of takers and the two captain goalkeepers are now placed at the center stage. Villa and Grosso were the first ones to take and both converted it well. 2nd round - Substitute Cazorla got the goal but De Rossi's was saved by Casillas. 3rd round - Senna scored and so does Camoranesi. 4th Round - Tension was back again when Guiza's shot was saved by Buffon. The penalty shootout could go all night..haha. It's so difficult to separate them. Di Natale was next for Italy but his shot was brilliantly saved by Casillas! Spain is back in the lead! And the final decisive point of the shootout is handled by Cesc Fabregas. I have to say good choice in putting him as the last taker as Fabregas has a high level of composure in front of goal. The Spanish wonderkid coolly slotted it past Buffon, bringing Spain to their first Euro semis in 24 years.

Casillas was definitely the hero of the night and his most memorable moment in the match has to be when he bravely kicks away an incoming Camoranesi shot to ensure that Spain keeps the clean sheet. Two saves in the shootout and he helped his country to finally break the 20-year+ jinx. Now, they are being set up for a rematch against the Russkis in the semis. A final showdown between Deutschland and Spain would be mouthwatering but based on the unpredictable nature of football, never discount the dark horses of Russia and Turkey...haha.