Spain face the team against whom their luck changed

We have been lucky enough to witness plenty of enjoyable confrontations between Spain and Italy over the years. Some of these were memorable, but one was to prove decisive in the Spanish national team's recent run of success. That was in 2008 at Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium, where Spain beat the Italians in the quarter-finals at the European Championship in an agonising penalty shootout that changed the face of Spanish football.

The penalty scored by Cesc Fabregas ended the poor run of fortune that had plagued the Spanish national team for decades and finally put Spain through to the semi-finals of a major tournament for the first time in 24 years. The win assigned to the past penalty shootout defeats to Belgium at the 1986 Mexico World Cup, England at Euro 96 and South Korea at the 2002 World Cup. Victory over Italy broke that curse and changed everything. Under Luis Aragones' guidance, Spain shrugged off their complexes and dazzled the world with their football en route to lifting the European title.

Spain will face Italy on June 27 in the round of 16 at #EURO2016

https://t.co/sAMMFIax7g pic.twitter.com/GJysFsO5bW

— LaLiga (@LaLigaEN) June 22, 2016

That kicked off a spectacular era for the Spanish national team in which Italy would play a starring role. Just two years later, with Vicente del Bosque now in the dugout, Spain won their first World Cup in South Africa, although they did not cross paths with Italy on their way to the title because the then defending champion crashed out in the group stages. However, Spain would go on to successfully defend their crown at Euro 2012 after playing Italy in two of their six games at the tournament.

That 2012 European Championship kicked off with an evenly-matched 1-1 draw between the two nations. However, the tournament final was a much more one-sided affair in which Spain ran out 4-0 winners as they lifted a third straight major international trophy and closed out an era that had coincidentally begun against the Italians.

Spain continued their impressive run of results against Italy a year later at the FIFA Confederations Cup, where they once again beat the Italians in a nail-biting penalty shootout after the hard fought match ended goalless after extra time.

Following a mixed bag of results in a string of friendly matches in recent years, the two countries now go head to head in the last sixteen at the European Championship in France in the latest chapter of the two nations' longstanding footballing rivalry. Back in 2008, Iker Casillas' saves and Cesc Fabregas' decisive penalty changed Spain's mind-set forever and Vicente del Bosque's charges are now looking for another win to take them a step closer to a third straight European title.