Italy Must Not fear Spain - Cesare Prandelli (Italian Coach)

Cesare Prandelli is a great admirer of Spain's style but insists his side cannot afford to be cowed by their UEFA EURO 2012 final rivals. "We mustn't fear them," he said. "We're here on merit.''

Cesare Prandelli recognizes that his side must pass a stern examination when they take on Spain in the UEFA EURO 2012 final, but steadfastly believes Italy can emerge triumphant. "We mustn't fear them," he said. "We are here on merit and we will give it everything."

After receiving another standing ovation as he entered the rechristened Sala Prandelli for his final press conference at Casa Azzurri, the Italy coach expressed his satisfaction at masterminding the downfall of Joachim Löw's highly rated Germany side with a 2-1 victory in Warsaw last night.

"We are very proud to have come so far" said the 54-year-old, who first expressed birthday wishes to Gioregio Napoletano, the Italian President who turned 86 today. "It makes you especially proud to represent you country, but when you're abroad I think you understand even more keenly than the people back home exactly what it means to fly the flag. Last night we had a game plan in place and the players executed it to perfection. The guys were extraordinary, we had very little time in training but we exploited what little time we had really well."

Though he admitted his players were exhausted after their efforts in reaching Sunday's final in Kyiv, Prandelli was optimistic about Italy's prospects of overcoming a free-flowing Spain side whose playing style he holds in the highest regard. "I'm hoping to prepare the team well even if we only have one day to do it. Just as we did with Germany we need to try to find their weak points and work on them.

"It won't be easy because Spain have been playing together for years, they won the last EURO and World Cup, and they are in the final again. This means they aren't just technically good, but they also have great moral and personal attributes that make them an example to us all. But we are here too. We have grown as the tournament has gone on."

The Azzurri played Spain in their opening match of the campaign, sharing a spirited 1-1 draw with Vicente del Bosque's side. Then, Antonio Di Natale gave them the lead which was quickly cancelled out by Cesc Fàbregas, and Prandelli believes his players have come on in leaps and bounds since that Group C fixture in Gdansk three weeks ago. "We have improved because since then we've been able to work in the field, work on our physical fitness and, psychologically speaking, now we're now a real side.

"We had a great first half against Spain and we must do that again," recalled Prandelli. "We must keep our balance, that's the secret. If we can distribute our resources in the right way then we have a chance. We need to show the right spirit but we must also have the right ideas. But it's not just about keeping our shape, it's also about attitude. We musn't fear them, we are here on merit, and now we have the desire to take it down to the wire and give it everything we have to win."

Italy Must Not fear Spain - Cesare Prandelli (Italian Coach)

Cesc Fàbregas Sings Iniesta's Praises - UEFA Euro Cup Final

Cesc Fàbregas refused to be drawn on Spain's formation against Italy but said Andrés Iniesta is a "source of immense confidence" for a team bidding to make history in Sunday's final.

Cesc Fàbregas refused to be drawn on whether Spain would play a recognized center-forward in the UEFA EURO 2012 final, instead the FC Barcelona midfielder chose to sing the praises of club-mate Andrés Iniesta and stress that La Roja will do everything they can to make history on Sunday.

Fàbregas deputised for leading scorer David Villa in the UEFA EURO 2008 showpiece, playing just behind Fernando Torres in a role which helped create space for the now Chelsea FC striker to score the winning goal against Germany.

Villa's absence from Poland and Ukraine has meant that this time Fàbregas and Torres have been in outright competition for a position in Vicente del Bosque's starting XI. The race to make the teamsheet gathered pace when Álvaro Negredo was given the starting centre-forward spot against Portugal in the semi-final.

The fact that Fàbregas, as he did in Vienna four years previously against Italy, struck the winning penalty has left some suggesting that he now has an advantage over the three other potential central strikers, Torres, Negredo and the unused Fernando Llorente.

However, the former Arsenal FC man believes that the fuss over the forward position is obscuring a couple of important points – firstly that Spain are on the brink of making history and secondly that Iniesta is having the tournament of his life.

"Andrés is getting better and better from game to game," said Fàbregas. "He had a difficult season at club level because of repetitive injuries, but he's in an extraordinary moment of his career at this tournament. This is having a huge impact on how we play.

"He's creative, he runs with the ball, he's got a brilliant final pass and with each passing year he's become more of a goalscorer as well as a provider. He's a source of immense confidence for us. During matches you can see him taking on more and more responsibility and in attack he's the team's reference point."

Indeed, it was Fàbregas who set up Iniesta to score the winner in the 2010 FIFA World Cup final against the Netherlands. Having already conquered Europe in 2008, it means that should Spain defeat Cesare Prandelli's side on Sunday in Kyiv then La Roja will have achieved something which no nation has ever done.

"We've already made history with the two consecutive trophies we've won, but, of course, we want a little bit more and came here with that as our objective," said the 25-year-old. "We'll give everything we have to win the tournament, not simply to make history. It's in our nature to try and win. Should be we be able to do so then we can celebrate with our friends and family. I know Spain is a football-obsessed country which is right behind us at the moment."

Fabregas is well aware that the Azzurri are in prime form and he respects the array of talent they have at their disposal. "[Mario] Balotelli's goals against Germany tell you all you need to know – he's a star and the first one was scored like an old fashioned centre-forward. We have to try and restrict Balotelli, [Antonio] Cassano and, above all, [Andrea] Pirlo, who had a great game the other night. It's going to be a very tight, very competitive final and the winner will have proved themselves the best team in this tournament."

Cesc Fàbregas Sings Iniesta's Praises - UEFA Euro Cup Final

Iker Casillas Ready for Shot at Unique Treble - UEFA Champions League

Iker Casillas discusses why the world and European champions Spain are ready to make history in Kyiv, the Italy shoot-out that changed everything and the drinks that started it all.

The popular legend is that a light-hearted bet between Iker Casillas, Pepe Reina and Andrés Palop, with stakes no higher than a couple of beers and some tapas, was one of the biggest influences on Spain winning UEFA EURO 2008.

Football folk can let superstition gnaw away at reason even at the best of times. Luis Aragonés, a man famous for mistrusting the colour yellow, went as far as refusing to acknowledge that the shirts worn by his Spain side in their last-four win against Russia were anything other than 'mustard' – but many doubted his charges would even reach that far when their quarter-final with Italy went to penalties in Vienna on 22 June.

Why? Well, the Roja had failed to defeat Italy in a competitive match in 88 long years since 1920. Worse still, the cursed date of 22 June had marked Spanish exits at three previous tournaments, and all following a penalty shoot-out: against Belgium at the 1986 FIFA World Cup, at the hands of England at EURO '96 and then against South Korea at the 2002 World Cup. Enough to give anyone a complex; but not Casillas.

A couple of weeks before the championship in Austria and Switzerland, he, Reina and Palop were consistently the last to leave Spain's training pitch at Las Rozas near Madrid, the three goalkeepers finishing with a penalty competition among themselves. The loser was to buy the other two a couple of cañas (little glasses of beer) and tapas.

That sharpening-up exercise had evidently gone well enough for Casillas, hit by the heady mix of adrenaline and exhaustion which sets in after extra time at a major tournament, to reject the help of Spain's goalkeeping coach before the shoot-out with Italy. José Manuel Ochotorena had a folder full of information on Italy's penalty takers that he was bursting to share with the Spanish captain, but did he want it? No, he did not. Casillas felt alert, confident – at the absolute apogee of his form.

Superstition, be damned. And the fact that Spain had not reached a major semi-final since the UEFA European Championship in France nearly a quarter of a century before? Also a mere detail to the man now heading towards goal. History has the subsequent facts noted down – saves to either side denied Antonio Di Natale and Daniele De Rossi so that Cesc Fàbregas could score the winning penalty and send Spain through to meet Russia en route to their showpiece victory against Germany. But, in that moment, the watching world held its breath while the stadium reverberated with noise and tension.

Unsurprisingly, that shoot-out, a turning point in his country's football destiny, still evokes magical memories for Casillas. "That was the moment when everything Spain needed to end our run of not winning tournaments and going out at the same stage every time just clicked," says the Real Madrid CF stalwart. "I recall every single bit of it: Italy as the opposition, the game finishing 0-0, and the fact it was going to be penalties on 22 June – again!"

Above all, Casillas is a team man. When it comes to his work, he sets exacting personal standards and trains with such intensity that, occasionally, he can appear lost in his own private search for excellence. Make no mistake, though: if asked to lead, either for club or country, then this is a player who strives to unify, seek consensus and maximise the power to be gained when 23 top athletes and their coaching staff all hungrily pursue the same goal.

"Our training camp in Neustift had been a place of great happiness and exceptional times," the 31-year-old recalls. "There was this feeling that we were living through a wonderful period. We all got on excellently together and the squad was really happy with our coach. I think that the great success was Luis Aragonés himself. A month before the finals, the coach had everything sorted in his mind – how to manage the squad and precisely what he wanted from the tournament." And, after Fernando Torres's goal in the final against Germany, the old man got his wish.

As the celebrations raged, Casillas raised the trophy aloft with ghosts of previous failures swirling around his head. "It was historic for Spanish football, but it brought great personal happiness after many disappointments, injustices and sad times both as a player and fan. In that moment, my thoughts were with former team-mates who'd tried to win a title in front of our supporters but weren't able to."

Of course, Spain then went on to add the 2010 World Cup to their European crown, with Vicente del Bosque now installed at the helm. About an hour after the final whistle in Soccer City, I spoke to Casillas and asked him to sum up the years of work that had gone into such a marvellous achievement. He immediately pinpointed UEFA EURO 2008, and the seasons leading up to it, as a revolutionary time in Spanish football.

Asked to compare the two major prizes the Roja have lifted since 2008, Casillas feels an overwhelmingly greater surge of affection when he thinks back to conquering Europe in Vienna. "If I had to choose just one of those memories, it would be EURO 2008 because it broke a 44-year run of our country not winning anything." Can they defeat Italy again in Sunday's kyiv final to make it three trophies in five years under captain Casillas? Don't bet even a caña or a couple of tapas against it.

Iker Casillas Ready for Shot at Unique Treble - UEFA Champions League

Spain earn their spot luck - Success owes nothing to chance

Graham Hunter saw Spain practice their shoot-out technique ahead of Wednesday's semi-final success, and knows that Vicente del Bosque's side owe success to more than fortune.

FC Shakhtar Donetsk's secluded, leafy Kirsha training ground is a world away from the cauldron of noise and pressure of the Donbass Arena on Wednesday night, where Spain lined up to take penalties against Portugal – but it is the place to begin our short story.
A shiny, new, well-appointed place, it has azure-blue lanterns placed around the pitch at two metre intervals. While the Spanish players trained late at night, those torches crackled and buzzed like raw electricity while bugs and flying biting things were drawn to the light and extinguished as a threat. It was a bizarre soundtrack.

Three quarters of Vicente del Bosque's side were practising passing exercises, one or two were allowed to joke around (Gerard Piqué amused himself with the odd 60 metre 'pass' right into the phalanx of cameramen and women who were parked to the left of Iker Casillas' goal), but at the far end Pepe Reina had been designated as penalty stopper while a handful of men, those who might be required to participate in a shoot-out against Portugal the following evening, were told to practice.

Those selected were Santi Cazorla, Andrés Iniesta, Álvaro Arbeloa,  Gerard Piqué and Sergio Ramos. What do you make of that?

Casillas wasn't asked to have penalty after penalty blasted past him so that his immense composure would not be ruffled.

Regular takers like Cesc Fàbregas, Juan Mata, Xabi Alonso, Fernando Llorente, Fernando Torres and Xavi Hernández weren't asked to take any.

There was no drama. The training session carried on around them and Del Bosque worked on other matters. It was a dusting off of cobwebs, Reina did the other thing he's brilliant at, setting a jocular but competitive mood, and to be there was to understand that Del Bosque saw a good chance of stalemate after 120 minutes.

The debate about the correlation between practicing penalties and taking them under pressure will rage on but I'm certain – working on your technique, getting in the groove, does no harm at all.

In the end Piqué scored, rather splendidly, and Ramos chipped over Rui Patrício. "I thought about that penalty during training on Tuesday night but I didn't want to show it to the media so I kept it to myself," said the Real Madrid CF defender, who missed a spot kick when FC Bayern München eliminated his club in this season's UEFA Champions League semi-final.

Practice won't make perfection – some penalties will still be missed – but the whole exercise was a microcosm of what has made Spain great. Work on your technique harder than the next guy and you'll usually beat him. As Jackie Stewart, Formula 1 world champion, always told me when I worked with him: "The harder I work the luckier I get." Lucky, lucky Spain.

Spain earn their spot luck - Success owes nothing to chance