Panucci confident of stopping Spain

| Sat, 06/21/2008 - 03:01

Italy defender Christian Panucci is confident of stopping on-fire Spain strikers Fernando Torres and David Villa in Sunday's Euro 2008 quarter-final in Vienna.

The AS Roma man said he and new centre-back partner Giorgio Chiellini of Juventus had ''done a good job'' on France pairing Thierry Henry and Karim Benzema in their Group C survival battle.

Italy beat France 2-0 to book their date with Spain and Panucci reckons they can close down the fearsome Spanish attack too.

''Torres and Villa are two very strong strikers, of course they are: but so were Henri and Benzema and look how that ended up,'' he said.

''Me and Chiellini are gelling nicely and he will soon become one of the best defenders in the world,'' Panucci added.

Torres told reporters ''Italy didn't become world champions by accident...but we are here to upset things and we can beat anyone''.

The Liverpool striker said Italy were likely to miss playmaker Andrea Pirlo who was a ''great'' provider for Italy's forwards.

Villa is the tournament's top scorer with four goals while Torres has one.

The winner of Sunday's game will meet Netherlands or Russia in the semi-finals on June 26.

The final is on June 29.

Topic: