It would be foolish to ignore that the final of UEFA EURO 2012 actually yielded the Henri Delaunay trophy itself when Spain defeated Italy 4-0.
But ask any of the players involved in La Roja’s breakthrough tournament win, back in 2008, and they will attach almost mystical importance to the fact that they defeated their bête noire, Italy, in a sweaty, tense, heroic quarter-final in Vienna.
Spain had not beaten the Azzurri in a competitive fixture for eight decades. From the moment Howard Webb blew the final whistle on Spain’s 2-1 win against Greece in the group stage there were 94 hours until kick-off in the fi…