THE WORLD OF MARVELOUS FOOTBALL: EURO 2012

They will probably have more possession and will cause us problems but when Italy play football as we know we can, we can fully challenge a team like Spain," Italy coach Cesare Prandelli told the media before the game.

Cesc Fàbregas and Xavi Hernández lead the way as Spain do sprints in an empty Arena Gdansk.

What is for certain is that there is some serious European Championship pedigree on display here - Spain have reached the final three times, winning in 1964 and 2008, while Italy have twice achieved the feat, lifting the trophy in 1968.

While Italy will draw confidence from the history books, Spain are on a run of 14 straight competitive victories and have gone 23 games without defeat in this competition since losing 2-0 in Sweden in a UEFA EURO 2008 qualifier on 7 October 2006.

In terms of FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship finals matches, Spain's record against Italy reads W0 D3 L3 – two of those draws and a loss coming in this competition. Italy also inflicted the joint heaviest loss in Spain's history during the 1928 Olympics, beating them 7-1.

This is also the meeting of the winners of the last two FIFA World Cups, and it is not one Spain will relish - they have not won a competitive game against Italy in the 29 games since their first duel in 1920, though they did eliminate the Azzurri on penalties after a goalless draw four years ago.

Welcome to Arena Gdansk, in the city of Gdansk on the Polish coast, where Group C gets under way with a bang as reigning European Champions Spain take on Italy in a heavyweight contest.