ECHOING the thoughts of the majority of the Spanish public, Italy defender Christian Panucci believes his side has the mental edge over Spain ahead of its quarter-final tomorrow morning.

Spain are reknowned for bottling it on the big occasion and despite their fine form at Euro08 so far, there is always this nagging doubt that they will crack when it matters most.

Two years ago, they won all three group games at the World Cup in Germany only to lose to a seemingly out-of-sorts France in the second round.

More pertinently, perhaps, Spain have not beaten Italy at a major competition for 88 years.

And on three previous occasions, they were knocked out at the quarter-final stage of a major tournament on 22 June, the day of the Italy clash.

In a recent poll before the end of the group stages, Spaniards voted Italy as the team they least wanted to face in the quarter-finals after Romania and France.

Panucci agrees that Italy have an advantage over Spain when it comes to the big competitions.

'I can understand why the Spanish people don't want to play against Italy, because in the past it has not been easy for Spain to play against Italy in these big competitions,' he said.

'Italy are very strong and I can understand why the Spanish people say this.'

Having kept Thierry Henry and Karim Benzema largely quiet in their last match alongside Giorgio Chiellini, Panucci will now have to deal with David Villa and Fernando Torres.

'Torres and Villa are two great strikers for sure, but Henry and Benzema are also a great pair and we know how that turned out,' he said defiantly.

'Chiellini and I are ready. He's on his way to becoming one of the best defenders in the world.'

Panucci's comments were echoed by Fernando Torres who said that Spain would happily adopt the role of underdogs.

He said: 'Italy are the current world champions and that's not an accident.

'But we are not afraid of them or their record.'

SUSPENDED

Italy have some problems, though, with midfield pair Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso both suspended while centre-back Andrea Barzagli has been ruled out of the tournament after undergoing a left knee operation.

Spain are at full strength, but have been showing signs of tension with Aragones and Sergio Ramos involved in a heated debate before training on Friday.

Aragones tried to downplay the row by saying: 'We were talking about things that affected the team and he expressed his opinion that's all.

'There is an extraordinary unity in this group.

'The thing is, because everything is going so smoothly, things like this get picked up when they are not important.' - AFP.