Italy coach Roberto Donadoni chose inexperienced midfielder Alberto Aquilani ahead of Mauro Camoranesi for their quarter-final against Spain today.
The 23-year-old, who has six caps and has never started in a major tournament, replaces the suspended Andrea Pirlo with Massimo Ambrosini coming in for the banned Gennaro Gattuso in the only other change from the 2-0 win over France last week.
Spain coach Luis Aragones kept faith with the team that crushed Russia 4-1 and edged a last gasp 2-1 win over Sweden in their first two group matches.
Tournament top scorer David Villa and Fernando Torres are up front. Xavi, Andres Iniesta and David Silva comprise the ball-playing midfield, while Marcos Senna occupies the holding role in front of the back four.
Cesc Fabregas starts on the bench together with Santi Cazorla.
Teams
Spain
1) Iker Casillas,
15) Sergio Ramos, 5) Carles Puyol, 4) Carlos Marchena, 11) Joan Capdevila,
19) Marcos Senna,
6) Andres Iniesta, 8) Xavi, 21) David Silva,
7) David Villa and 9) Fernando Torres.
Italy
1) Gianluigi Buffon,
19) Gianluca Zambrotta, 2) Christian Panucci, 4) Giorgio Chiellini, 3) Fabio Grosso,
22) Alberto Aquilani, 10) Daniele De Rossi, 13) Massimo Ambrosini,
20) Simone Perrotta,
18) Antonio Cassano and 9) Luca Toni.
Referee
Herbert Fandel (Germany)