Goalkeeper Iker Casillas is keeping his feet firmly on the ground after proving Spain's saviour in their UEFA EURO 2008 quarter-final shoot-out victory against Italy.
The Carlsberg Man of the Match saved penalties from Daniele De Rossi and Antonio Di Natale to help his side into a semi-final against Russia, but later admitted fearing Spain would suffer a seventh last-eight exit in this competition. "It's true we had a few inner doubts about getting past the quarter-finals again," the 27-year-old said. "There was a lot of pressure on us to do it but I think we deserved it, even though it was a very hard match.
We held out until penalties and, in the end, everything turned out well for us and we're through."
The Real Madrid CF player knows that two more wins are required if Spain are to clinch their first major title since the European crown of 1964 – and that Thursday's semi-final opponents Russia will present a sterner challenge than in their opening game, a 4-1 Group D triumph in Innsbruck. "I don't want to get too carried away because penalties are a lottery," Casillas said.
"In the end we were lucky and we would be naïve to think that we are already in the final just because we beat Russia [in the group stage]. Russia are a great side, as they showed against Sweden and the Netherlands, and we will have to watch them."
Casillas made an excellent stop from Mauro Camoranesi's shot early in the second half and was on hand to tip Di Natale's header over the bar in extra time. But he was especially pleased to pull off his shoot-out heroics, having had bad experiences in the past. "If I'm not wrong, the last time I saved a penalty was in the 2002 [FIFA] World Cup at the last-16 stage, but then in the quarter-finals we went out to South Korea," he said. "So I'm glad we were lucky against Italy."
According to Spain coach Luis Aragonés, though, fortune has nothing to do with it. "I was sure he would save the penalties," said the 69-year-old. "His goalkeeping coach told him where the Italian players like to aim. This morning they watched a few videos and analysed those small details."
Dr Jozef Vengloš, a member of the UEFA Technical Team who selected Casillas as Carlsberg Man of the Match, explained the decision. "It was a very even game, a tactical battle between two teams who know each other very well," he said.
"It was a question of who would score the first goal. That didn't happen. The match was full of experienced players who read the game very well and in the end it was the individual qualities that decided it in the penalty shoot-out.
[Marcos] Senna played very well, he passed it well and attacked and defended well – he was leading the game. He was very tactically disciplined. Italy had a few chances but couldn't score. But with penalties, the goalkeeper is always the hero. Casillas was technically very good there and that's why we chose him."
Source: euro2008.uefa.com
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