Italy v Spain

Spain and Italy faced off in a rematch of the final of the Euro last year.  The two best teams in the world made a meaningless tournament semi-final into a wonderful spectacle.  They have almost so much respect for each other it's almost creepy.  As @ACMilanEspana put it(highly suggest you follow him) "The way things are going, wouldn't be surprised if Italia & España halt in the middle of the game & joyfully sing Kumbaya with each other."  The best team on the planet were massive favorites over Italy and I honestly was expecting them to destroy gli Azzurri.  That absolutely did not happen.  A depleted Italian team completely overhelmed and outplayed La Roja for most of the 120 minutes plus penalties.  Italy was without Mario Balotelli and was forced to go with the ever so deadly and fierce Alberto Gilardino!  Gila was hopeless and it was a wonder why Prandelli didn't start Stephen El Shaarawy who put Gerard Pique on a leash and dragged him around in the first leg against Barcelona for Milan.  Although, Prandelli knew exactly what he was doing.  Antonio Candreva and Maggio were wonderful on the right side.  Jordi Alba probably will put a poster up of Candreva in his bedroom when he gets home.  Also worthy of a mention is Emanuele Giaccherini.  Once again he showed great pace and work rate and was litterly 2cm from lifting Italia over Spagna early in extra time when his rifle of a shot banged off the post.  The only man missing of Spain's usual 11 was Xabi Alonso and you can tell just how much they missed him in the midfield.  Unsuprisingly, Fernando Torres started up top for Spain and unsuprisingly choked against an actual opponent unlike teams like Tahiti or in the Europa league and every time he scores the media has an orgasm.  He was a fish lost in the Pacific against Italy as he was completely shut down as was the rest of the Spanish team except for Casillas.  Iker was the saviour for Spain as without him, it easily could've been 2 or 3-0 Italy by half time.  Besides Casillas, Jesus Navas deserves a lot of praise.  He was fantastic down the right wing with his immense speed and every time he had the ball I had to hold my breath.  Unfortunately for Azzurrini, Italy was not rewarded for their wonderful play and domination and lost in penalties to la Roja.  Leonardo Bonucci skied his penalty over the cross bar and Navas stepped up and scored to give Spain the 7-6 win in penalties.  A lot of people are and will be bashing Bonucci for missing his penalty, but they shouldn't.  He's a center back and shouldn't be there in the first place and also it's an extremely high pressure situation.  People make mistakes, even in the biggest of moments.  His job is to defend and he did that wonderfully today.  Spain go on to face Brazil in the final and Italy will play Uruguay in the 3rd place game.  I fully expect both Spain and Italy to win their respective matches and I also expect these two teams to meet in the final of the World Cup.  With a few tweaks and everybody staying healthy, Italy is easily #2 in the world.  Worth noting, they are not even close Spain, that's showing just how far above Spain are over everyone else.