And now there are four. Two weeks ago 16 teams began the final stages of the Euro 2008 Football championships after working there way through the qualifying stages. Two weeks of some very exciting and surprising football have reduced the field to Germany taking on Turkey and Spain taking on Russia to determine who will meet in the championship game on June 29th 2008. The way the tournament has been going to this point, I doubt anyone can offer an ironclad guarantee on who will advance to that final game in Vienna, let alone leave the pitch as champion.

Of the four teams, only Spain has followed the path predicted for them before the tournament. They handily defeated Russia, Sweden, and Greece in the preliminary round before being forced to engage in a penalty kick shootout to advance past the Italians in the quarterfinals. While Spain might not have looked as impressive in their match against the Italians as they did against, say, the Russians in the first round, the psychological impact of beating their old adversary, the first time in competition since the 1920s, can't be underestimated.

In the modern era Spain has been the perennial underachiever, never living up to their pre-tournament hype and leaving their fans wondering what might have been. More often than not the team that has been responsible for breaking Spanish hearts have been the Italians. As host country for the World Cup in 1982 they were ahead of the Italians 2-0 before falling 3-2 in their quarter final match. That Italy stunned highly favoured Brazilian and German sides as well as the Spaniards on their way to their third World Cup victory, was probably of little consolation to the team or its fans.

So now they have finally broken the curse of the Azurri and will be facing the Russian team that they defeated 4-1 in the opening game of this tournament. They won't be overconfident after their narrow win over Italy, but they will have the confidence that comes with winning the games they are supposed to win. Although Italy stifled their speedy forwards and quick counter attacks with a smothering defence, they should find more room on the pitch for manoeuvring against an equally fast paced Russian team that concentrates on offence as much as the Spanish do.

This is not the same Russian side that Spain beat so easily two weeks ago though, as they bounced back from their opening defeat to advance out of the round robin, and then ran a highly favoured Dutch team into the ground 3 - 1 in their quarter final match. Even though the game wasn't decided until the second overtime period, the Russians' constant attack mode clearly left the Dutch exhausted and only the excellence of their goalkeeper kept the score from mounting higher and allowed the game to extend into extra time.