Spain's Torres has respect for Italy but no fear

By Simon Baskett

NEUSTIFT, Austria (Reuters) - Spain hold Italy in high esteem but Luis Aragones's side are not intimidated by the prospect of taking on the world champions in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 in Vienna on Sunday.

"Italy won the last World Cup and you don't achieve that by accident," Spain striker Fernando Torres told a news conference on Friday. "They are a team we should respect and given their past record they are the favourites.

"But although they may be favourites on paper we have absolutely no fear of them. We beat them in a recent friendly and now we've got the chance to do the same in a competitive game," he added referring to a 1-0 win in Elche in March.

Spain have been impressive in the group stage, crushing Russia 4-1 in their opener before overcoming Sweden 2-1 and then coming from a goal down to beat 2004 champions Greece 2-1 with a team composed almost entirely of second string players.

"Spain are playing well, we are winning easily and we have a lot of alternatives," said Torres. "We expect to have the ball for long periods against Italy but we will have to be patient against them."

Torres said the absence of suspended midfielder Andrea Pirlo would weaken the Italians particularly at set pieces, but he added that there was no danger of that undermining Roberto Donadoni's side despite their poor form in the group stage.

"They haven't been brilliant in the group but it was the same story at the World Cup and they ended up winning it," he said. "In the group you can afford to have a bad day, but if that happens now you go home."

Spain, who have never beaten Italy in a major international competition outside the Olympics, finished top of Group D while Italy scraped into the last eight with four points having been thrashed 3-0 by Netherlands in their Group C opener.

(Reporting by Simon Baskett, editing by Ken Ferris)