Jinxed no more

Spain is in the semifinals of Euro 2008.

Now that, even though expected of the Spaniards, is quite a surprise. Spain has always entered a major competition as one of the favourites, given the abundance of talents in their team, but has only made it to the semifinals twice before, the first time in 1964 and they won that match over Hungary 2-1 in extra time, and 20 years later in 1984 when they defeated Denmark in the penalty shoot-out only to lose to France in the finals.

Apart from those two achievements, Spain has always faltered when the going gets tough, disappointing the whole of Spain until they do not put much hope whenever Spain is playing in the big tournaments. Until last night, of course.

The omens were not on their side for their quarterfinals match against Italy. Italy started their campaign on a weak note, trashed by Holland, drew with Romania and finally hitting the right note by beating France to qualify for the knockout stages. Suddenly Italy, the current world champion, seems the favourite to conquer the Spanish.

Spain had a perfect record in the group stages. Three wins out of three. Holland won all three games too, and they lost their quarterfinals match. Croatia won all three games too, and they lost their quarterfinals match too. Will Spain follow suits?

And their quarterfinals match was set on June 22, a date that marked doom for the Spanish team. On June 22 1986, Spain lost to Belgium in the World Cup quarterfinals. On June 22 1996, it was England that halted their run, again in the quarterfinals. And on June 22 2004, they were undone by the Koreans, also in the quarterfinals. And all losses were in the penalty shoot-out.

So when the match this morning went into shoot-out, it was like fate was not on Spain's side. It was like Italy was purposely playing for the draw so that the match would go into penalties, knowing that they had all the luck and signs to win it.

But they have forgotten one fact.

Spain has Iker Casillas.