The World Cup champion Italians were stymied twice by goalkeeper Iker Casillas in the shoot-out.

Spain, the only group winner in the semifinals, plays Russia in Vienna on Thursday night. The other semifinal has Turkey against Germany on Wednesday in Basel, Switzerland.

David Villa, Santi Cazorla and Marcos Senna beat Italy's Gianluigi Buffon in the shoot-out. Fabio Grosso and Mauro Camoranesi connected for Italy, but Casillas stopped Daniele De Rossi and Antonio Di Nitale. Casillas guessed right on all four Italy penalty kicks, barely missing the two that found the net.

It was the first victory for Spain over Italy in a major competition in 88 years.

The last quarterfinal of the tournament often was sleep-inducing, played at a crawl, with neither side willing to open up the game.

Spain created more openings, but neither team performed at anything like its peak.