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MOTD- Spain (7) 0-0 (6) Italy

By on June 27, 2013

Spain beat Italy 7-6 on penalties after 120 minutes of football failed to produce a goal, with La Roja narrowly avoiding bombing out of the Confederations Cup in a rematch of the Euro 2012 final. A gritty Italy performed well until Leonardo Boucci fired his penalty well over the bar after twelve straight penalties found their way into the back of the net.

Despite Italy’s recent poor showings against Spain, including their 4-0 thumping in the Euro 2012 final, the Azzurri did well to shut down Spain’s pressure. Cesare Prandelli’s side looked dangerous on the counter-attack tough, and Christian Maggio’s powerful low header from a long-ball over the top of the Spain defense was expertly kick away by an oncoming Iker Casillas. Italy again unraveled La Roja’s defense with an Andrea Pirlo free-kick from the right in the sixteenth minute, which Daniele Di Rossi headed just wide form eight yards. Claudio Marchisio came close to opening the scoring in the twentieth minute when a diagonal ball from the left found Alberto Gilardino on the right side of the box. The forward nodded it back across goal to Claudio Marchisio, who sent a powerful diving header inches wide of the post.

Italy’s confidence continued to grow as they pushed farther up the field, playing high-quality football as they played their way around a shell-shocked Spain. Prandelli’s side again almost took the lead as Emanuele Giaccherini chipped a lovely cross from the left to Maggio, who’s powerful close-range header at the back post forced Cassias into a fantastic save to turn the ball away.

The Azzurri struggled to keep up their tempo as the match moved on to the second half, and Spain slowly forced their way back into the match, gaining more possession while slowing the flow of the game down. Jesus Navas’ low driven shot from the edge of the box was well stopped by Gianluigi Buffon, as Spain dominated, only for Italy to start pinning La Roja back into their own half for lengthily periods at a time. Fernando Torres wasted a great opportunity to win the match in the eighty-seventh minute, with the Chelsea forward blazing it over the bar from sixteen yards after Navas cut it back to Torres from the right.

Although the tempo of the match slowed a considerable amount in the final minutes of normal time, both sides began extra-time at an exhilarating pace. Antonio Candreva played a lovely cross across goal from the right, and it fell to Sebastian Giovinco at the back post, and the young winger slammed it onto the post with a screaming shot. Alba then volleyed over from ten yards as Spain began to pressure the Italians, and La Roja nearly found a winner as the match progressed to the second period of extra-time. Buffon diverted Xavi’s brilliant curling shot from twenty-five yards onto the crossbar, and the ball bounced back out to Javi Martinez, who somehow dragged his low shot across goal from six-yards inches wide of the post.

Spain looked sure to score as they pressured as far up the field as possible, but Italy defied the odds and pushed the match into penalties.

Candreva dinked the first penalty down the middle Pirlo-style while Cassias dove to the left, before Xavi sent Buffon the wrong way and curled his unstoppable spot-kick into the corner of the net. Alberto Aquilani then converted his penalty, while Andreas Iniesta curled his into the corner of the net. De Rossi slammed his into the top corner, with Gerard Pique sending Buffon the wrong way to make it 3-3.

Giovinco, Sergio Ramos, and Pirlo all struck perfect penalties, giving two of the best goalkeepers in the world no chance to stop them. Juan Mata followed suit and perfectly placed his spot kick into the corner of the net, as did Riccardo Montolivo, making it 6-5 Italy. Sergio Busquets then made it 6-6, before Bonucci stepped up to take Italy’s seventh penalty. The defender took a long run-up, and blasted his pk miles over the bar. Navas took the long walk up to win it for Spain, and sent a perfect low penalty into the bottom corner of the net, sending Vincent Del Bosque’s side into the Confederations Cup finals against Brazil.
Man of the Match: Iker Cassias

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.