Italy on a revenge mission, roars Chiellini

DEFENDER Giorgio Chiellini is looking for revenge against Spain for Italy’s thrashing in the Euro 2012 final.

The teams meet in the last 16 tomorrow with that painful memory still fresh. And Chiellini does not mince his words when talking about their fierce rivals.

‘Spain have been our nemesis since 2008, which is when their golden era started,’ said Chiellini, who was also in the team who lost to Spain in a shootout in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008. ‘I like the word revenge, but more than the word, we need to put it into practice. We didn’t expect to meet Spain but we knew we would have a difficult last-16 tie whatever happened. We know what to expect.’

While Italy remain the same hard-working team with a solid defence, Spain are no longer such a dominant force, having gone out in the group stage of the last World Cup.

The last two times Spain defeated the Italians in European competition, they had a squad

which included Xavi Hernandez, Xabi Alonso and an in-form Fernando Torres. Now their revamped team relies mostly on Andres Iniesta.

Italy arrived in France written off back home but got off to a fine start by beating Belgium 2-0 and Sweden 1-0, establishing themselves as one of the title favourites. Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque said: ‘They are very good in defence but that doesn’t mean they play defensively. They’ve made changes in midfield and they seem a more positive team than in 2012.’

Spain lost their final group game 2-1 to Croatia but striker Nolito insisted: ‘We weren’t as good as people talked about before the loss to Croatia and we are not as bad now. We have a good team. We don’t have to fear anyone.’