Italy midfield daunts Del Bosque

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque has claimed Italy’s ‘perfect’ midfield will be his side’s greatest challenge in Sunday’s Euro 2012 final.

While Spain struggled past Portugal on Wednesday, Italy maintained their status as the tournament’s surprise package by defeating Germany 2-1 in the other semi-final.

Del Bosque has admitted he has some problems to solve after watching Italy’s brilliant performance against the Germans on Thursday.

“Italy has found the perfect midfield with (Andrea) Pirlo and (Daniele) De Rossi and they have a very strong defence,” Del Bosque said on Friday.

“I think they will repeat the same team that beat Germany (against Spain).

“The team’s axis is Pirlo and (Mario) Balotelli.

“In the group stage (meeting between the sides), they were possibly better in the first half.

“They were the team that caused us the most problems.”

Spain and Italy played out a 1-1 draw in their opening match of Euro 2012 and after the two semi-finals, Cesare Prandelli’s side look to be in better form.

Del Bosque’s team needed penalties to overcome Portugal following a hard-fought 0-0 draw.

But despite having played out a number of low-scoring games, the former Real Madrid boss argued that Spain have been the team of the tournament.

“We may not have been very spectacular, but we have dominated every match we have played in this Euro 2012,” he said.