Italy–Spain football rivalry

On 31 May, Italy faced Spain in the quarter-final of the 1934 FIFA World Cup, where the two sides drew 1–1 after extra time with Spanish goal by Luis Regueiro in the 30th minute and Italian goal by Giovanni Ferrari in the 44th minute. They then faced off again in the replay match the following day to settle the team that advances; Italy won the replay 1–0 win the goal coming from Giuseppe Meazza in the 11th minute.[6] Italy went on to win their first World Cup title.

31 May 1934

16:30 CEST

Italy	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Spain
Ferrari  44'	Report	Regueiro  30'

Stadio Giovanni Berta, Florence

Attendance: 35,000

Referee: Louis Baert (Belgium)

Replay

1 June 1934

16:30 CEST

Italy	1–0	Spain
Meazza  11'	Report

Stadio Giovanni Berta, Florence

Attendance: 43,000

Referee: René Mercet (Switzerland)

On 14 June, Italy and Spain were matched up for the second match in the group stage, where Italy won 1–0 with the goal coming from Gianluca Vialli in the 73rd minute.[6] Italy went on to win their last group match, while Spain lost theirs; Italy made it out of the group, while Spain did not.

14 June 1988 (1988-06-14)

20:15 CEST

Italy	1–0	Spain
Vialli  73'	Report

Waldstadion, Frankfurt

Attendance: 47,506

Referee: Erik Fredriksson (Sweden)

On 9 July, Italy won the quarter-final match up against Spain in the 1994 World Cup 2–1 quarter-final at Foxboro Stadium, with Italian Dino Baggio scoring first in the 25th minute, the Spaniards equalised with a goal from José Luis Caminero in the 58th minute, before Roberto Baggio sealed the Italian victory in the 88th minute.[6] A controversy in the match was Mauro Tassotti's elbow on Spanish player Luis Enrique,[7] but during the match the incident went unpunished – Tassotti was later banned for eight games.[8]

9 July 1994

12:00 PDT

Italy	2–1	Spain
D. Baggio  25' R. Baggio  88'	Report	Caminero  58'

Foxboro Stadium, Foxborough

Attendance: 53,400

Referee: Sándor Puhl (Hungary)

On 22 June, Italy and Spain were matched up for a quarter-final in Euro 2008; the game ended a goalless draw after 120 minutes and resulted in a penalty shoot-out which Spain won 4–2.[6] Spain went on to win the European Championship for the second time.

22 June 2008 (2008-06-22)

20:45 CEST

Spain	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Italy
	Report
Penalties
Villa Cazorla Senna Güiza Fàbregas	4–2	Grosso De Rossi Camoranesi Di Natale

Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna

Attendance: 48,000[9]

Referee: Herbert Fandel (Germany)

On 1 July, Spain and Italy were matched up for the final of Euro 2012. The sides had already met in the group stage, drawing 1–1. Spain took the lead in the 14th minute, though, when Andrés Iniesta played a through-ball to Cesc Fàbregas, who drove past Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini to the by-line before pulling back a cross for David Silva to head into the net from six yards.[10] Chiellini was clearly struggling with a thigh injury he had picked up in the earlier rounds, and he was replaced by Federico Balzaretti after 20 minutes.[10] Italy responded with a couple of shots from Antonio Cassano that were saved by Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas,[10] but Spain doubled their lead before half-time when Xavi picked out left-back Jordi Alba, who capped a long forward run with a precise finish past Gianluigi Buffon in the Italy goal.[10]

Antonio Di Natale came on for Cassano at half-time and twice went close to scoring, the second effort forcing a save from the onrushing Casillas.[10] Italy's final substitution saw Thiago Motta replace Riccardo Montolivo, but he soon suffered a hamstring injury; with all of their substitutes used, Italy had to play the last 30 minutes of the match with ten men.[10] Fernando Torres replaced Fàbregas with 15 minutes left to play, and scored in the 84th minute – assisted by Xavi – to become the first man to score in two European Championship finals.[11] Torres then turned provider four minutes later, cutting the ball back with the outside of his boot for fellow substitute and Chelsea forward Juan Mata to sweep into an empty net for a final score of 4–0,[10] the widest margin of victory in any European Championship final. Spain became the first team to retain the European Championship title and also the first European team to win three major international competitions in a row.

1 July 2012 (2012-07-01)

21:45 EEST

Spain	4–0	Italy
Silva  14' Alba  41' Torres  84' Mata  88'	Report

Olympic Stadium, Kiev

Attendance: 63,170[12]

Referee: Pedro Proença (Portugal)

On 27 June, the semi-final of the 2013 Confederations Cup in Brazil was contested between Italy and Spain, where after a goalless 120 minutes, Spain won 7–6 in the resulting penalty shoot-out; Italy's Leonardo Bonucci was the only player to miss.[13]

27 June 2013

16:00 BRT

Spain	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Italy
	Report
Penalties
Xavi Iniesta Piqué Ramos Mata Busquets Navas	7–6	Candreva Aquilani De Rossi Giovinco Pirlo Montolivo Bonucci

Estádio Castelão, Fortaleza

Attendance: 56,083

Referee: Howard Webb (England)

On 27 June, Italy and Spain matched up for the round of 16 in the Euro 2016, in a rematch of the previous tournament's final. Italy won 2–0 with goals from Giorgio Chiellini in the 33rd minute and Graziano Pellè in stoppage time of the second half. Spanish goalkeeper David de Gea made several impressive saves to keep Spain in the match, notably on Pellè's first-half header attempt, however, it ultimately ended in defeat, as defending European champions Spain were eliminated from the tournament.[14][15]

27 June 2016 (2016-06-27)

18:00 CEST

Italy	2–0	Spain
Chiellini  33' Pellè  90+1'	Report

Stade de France, Saint-Denis

Attendance: 76,165[16]

Referee: Cüneyt Çakır (Turkey)

Italy was not seeded into the first pot, being placed into the second pot due to being in 17th place in the FIFA World Rankings at the time of the group draws; Italy and Spain, from pot one, were drawn together on 25 July 2015.[17] Italy and Spain drew 1–1 in Turin on 6 October 2016, followed by a 3–0 Spain win in Madrid on 2 September 2017, as Spain topped Group G, leaving Italy in second place five points behind.[18][19] Italy were then required to go through the play-off against Sweden. After a 1–0 aggregate loss to Sweden, on 13 November 2017, Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1958.[20]

6 October 2016 (2016-10-06)

20:45 CEST

Italy	1–1	Spain
De Rossi  82' (pen.)	Report	Vitolo  55'

Juventus Stadium, Turin

Attendance: 38,470

Referee: Felix Brych (Germany)

2 September 2017 (2017-09-02)

20:45 CEST

Spain	3–0	Italy
Isco  14', 40' Morata  77'	Report

Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid

Attendance: 73,628

Referee: Björn Kuipers (Netherlands)

Note: *Spain defeated Italy in a Euro 2008 quarter-final match via penalty shoot-out.
**Spain defeated Italy in a 2013 Confederations Cup semi-final match via penalty shoot-out