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05 July 2021It looked like two national teams in progress, and instead Italy and Spain are burning the stages of restructuring to get back to the top of European football.

It will be up to them, credited with the best game seen in the tournament, to cross the gloves at Wembley to conquer the coveted final in which they will probably find England as hosts.



Busquets and Chiellini

, veterans of a thousand battles, they hold hopes and certainties to baptism to open a new cycle. Two great former players, Roberto Mancini and Luis Enrique (who finds the Azzurri in the national team after a broken nose by Tassotti's elbow at the 1994 World Cup), lead the national teams with a happy hand. For the first time in more than a quarter of a century, the Azzurri are back as favorites, due to the quality of the game shown at Euro 2020 and the merit elimination of the n.1 of the world rankings, Belgium, eternally unfinished.



The golden generation

has not left its mark, unlike the Spanish one, mistress of Europe and the world between 2008 and 2012. However, the balance between Italy and Spain is equal, with 11 victories for one in 37 matches and Mancini's blues will have a a minor but not ephemeral stimulus, Spain's streak of 35 matches in 2007-2009. Italy is at 32 and does not want to give up. It will be good to try to close the match within 90 'because the previous two express the Iberian superiority on penalties: it happened in the quarterfinals of the 2008 European Championships (mistakes by De Rossi and Di Natale) and in the semifinal of Confederations 2013 (Bonucci made a mistake). Two heavy results are at the basis of the further desire for Italy's revenge: the 4-0 in the final of Euro 2012 and the 3-0 in the 2018 world qualifiers which forced theVentura's Italy in the play-off awkwardly lost to the Swedes. The background of the admirable reconstruction initiated and carried out with skill by Mancini.



The story of the challenges

between Italy and Spain is a succession of pearls, but also of excesses, the result of a growing rivalry that has been a counterbalance to that between the most famous clubs, Real, Barcelona and Atletico on the one hand, Juve, Milan and Inter on the other . From the punch that costs the red to the legendary goalkeeper Zamora, in the first challenge at the 1920 Olympics, to the elbow of Tassotti that makes the blood flow copiously from the broken nose of the current coach Luis Enrique in the 1994 quarters: it also tastes of bullfighting tomorrow's happening , 38 / o of the series. The Latin 'great beauty' passes from passionate challenges to tasteless tests, and there is even the record of Salvadore's double own goal that nullifies, before Mexico '70, the advantage of Riva and Anastasi. Spain is also linked to the last feats of the Grande Torino in the 3-1 blue leave in Madrid in March 1949,two months from Superga.



But Spain-Italy is also

a goal scorer

: Meazza, Piola, Baggio, Inzaghi, Vialli on one side, Di Stefano, Raul and Torres on the other. The most thunderous goalscorer is the blue 7-1 at the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928 with the famous goal from Levrato (ball that breaks through the net), then there is the 4-0 in 1942 at San Siro with goals also from Mazzola and Piola, to which Spain responded 60 years later with the terrible 4-0 in the final in Kiev. One of the great protagonists of 101 years of challenges is

the star Ricardo Zamora

(goalkeeper of the century according to the IffHS) who participates in 9 of the 12 matches between 1920 and 1934. In the world semifinal in Florence, Italy and Spain close 1-1 with a peer from Ferrari and an undetected foul by Schiavio on the goalkeeper who works miracles for 90 '. And here is the yellow of the disappearance of Zamora (apparently due to the political-diplomatic pressure of the fascist regime) in the repetition of the match the next day, won amidst the controversy with a goal from Meazza: absence never clarified, then Italy wins the title. A quarter of a century passes and the great protagonist on the bench is

the magician Herrera

who, in addition to Inter, heads Spain: he wins 3-1 with Italy and Di Stefano also scores. Then there is the 2-1 in Cagliari in 1971 in the game of oranges, launched by the public due to the absence of Sardinian players. Show and goals (2-2) in the 1998 friendly match in Salerno for the victims of the Sarno flood: Raul scored and twice Inzaghi scored. Victories of blue measure in Rome in 1978 and in the 1988 Europeans with the illustrious signatures of Paolo Rossi and Vialli, then in 1994 Italian qualification with Baggio in the world quarters fouled by Tassotti's elbow.



Since then the only Italian friendly success is the 2-1 in Bari in 2011 with Montolivo and Aquilani before the draw and the collapse in the final in 2012 and the knockout on penalties in the Confederations 2013. Then the 1-1 in Udine with Insigne's goal, preamble to the 2-0 regenerator at the 2016 Europeans, the surprising return to blue success in official matches after 1994. Now, after the unfortunate outcome of the 2018 world qualifiers, it's Italy-Spain again. There are two races left for the possible return to the European throne, 53 years after the 1968 triumph.