Spain

Italy pick Aquilani, Spain at full strength

18:02 BST, Sun 22 Jun 2008
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Italy fans pose before their Euro 2008 quarter-final soccer match against Spain at Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, June 22, 2008.   REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach (AUSTRIA)  MOBILE OUT. EDITORIAL USE ONLY

By Mark Meadows

VIENNA, June 22 (Reuters) - Italy coach Roberto Donadoni chose inexperienced midfielder Alberto Aquilani ahead of Mauro Camoranesi for their Euro 2008 quarter-final against Spain on Sunday.

The 23-year-old, who has six caps and has never started in a major tournament, replaces the suspended Andrea Pirlo with Massimo Ambrosini coming in for the banned Gennaro Gattuso in the only other change from the 2-0 win over France last week.

Spain coach Luis Aragones kept faith with the team that crushed Russia 4-1 and edged a last gasp 2-1 win over Sweden in their first two group matches.

Euro 2008 top scorer David Villa and Fernando Torres are up front. Xavi, Andres Iniesta and David Silva comprise the ball-playing midfield, while Marcos Senna occupies the holding role in front of the back four.

Cesc Fabregas starts on the bench together with Santi Cazorla.

Teams:

Spain: 1-Iker Casillas; 15-Sergio Ramos, 5-Carles Puyol, 4-Carlos Marchena, 11-Joan Capdevila; 19-Marcos Senna; 6-Andres Iniesta, 8-Xavi, 21-David Silva; 7-David Villa, 9-Fernando Torres

Italy: 1-Gianluigi Buffon; 19-Gianluca Zambrotta, 2-Christian Panucci, 4-Giorgio Chiellini, 3-Fabio Grosso; 22-Alberto Aquilani, 10-Daniele De Rossi, 13-Massimo Ambrosini; 20-Simone Perrotta; 18-Antonio Cassano, 9-Luca Toni

Referee: Herbert Fandel (Germany)

 

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MATCH CENTRE

29 Jun 21:45 Germany 0 - 1 Spain FT
26 Jun 21:45 Russia 0 - 3 Spain FT
25 Jun 21:45 Germany 3 - 2 Turkey FT
22 Jun 21:45 Spain 0 - 0 Italy FT
21 Jun 21:45 Netherlands 1 - 3 Russia FT
20 Jun 21:45 Croatia 1 - 1 Turkey FT
19 Jun 21:45 Portugal 2 - 3 Germany FT
18 Jun 21:45 Greece 1 - 2 Spain FT
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