The importance of Spain's defeat of Italy in 2008

It would be foolish to ignore that the final of UEFA EURO 2012 actually yielded the Henri Delaunay Cup 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 they beat their bête noire, Italy, in a sweaty, tense, heroic quarter-final in Vienna.

Spain had not overcome the Azzurri in a competitive fixture for eight decades. From the moment Howard Webb blew the final whistle on Spain's 2-1 victory over Greece in the group stage, there were 94 hours until kick-off in the last-eight match at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion.

Almost every single minute of them were spent talking nervously about Italy – publicly and privately. Even the notoriously tough, streetwise, psychological expert Luis Aragonés slipped into the habit immediately.

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When Italy squeezed through, 'El Sabio de Hortaleza' said: "They're not the rival I most fancied playing in the last eight. Really, really complicated. They looked like they were dead and buried in this tournament and here they are in the knockout rounds – again!"

Iker Casillas joined in. "Italy, the team that does a lot with very little." It might read like a putdown, but it was not.

The contest itself was tense. No goals but plenty of action around both Casillas and Gianluigi Buffon's goals. And nerves. Later Marcos Senna would tell your UEFA.com Spain reporter: "When the game was drawing towards penalties and Iker made a small error, I was sure I saw some of our legs begin to tremble.

"Some minds turning to the fact it was Italy and penalties were looming. I shouted and bawled at them because I felt like Aragonés's representative on the pitch."

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The 'Wise Man of Hortaleza' explained some years later: "I was struck by the media and fans thinking we were automatically going to lose. I saw nerves in the players. I took Casillas and Xavi aside and asked them to redouble their efforts to make the [squad's] mindset more robust. My message over and over was that we were the better side and we'd go through."

They did, Casillas saving two penalties and Cesc Fàbregas slotting in the clinching spot kick. Xavi Hernández would tell me that this was the 'eureka' moment, that he 100% "knew" Spain would now go on to win the tournament.

Fernando Torres, though, was the most authoritative on the subject. "Italy had kicked our backsides in so many tournaments that you start getting flashbacks of the worst moments. But Aragonés made it a challenge to beat everyone, not just Italy. You walk out thinking you will change history, you win on penalties and THAT is the moment.

"All the anxiety, all the fear just melts away. It's as if you've won the whole tournament. When we beat Italy, we were all totally sure we'd be champions."

Eight years on they either triumph again to keep the golden age going or hand the baton back to Italy and surrender their title.