The Euro 2012 tournament will conclude Sunday with a final between Spain and Italy. Not many people would have predicted that Italy would have made it through to this stage of the competition, but they have now caught the attention of world soccer and will be looking to prove all their doubters wrong by defeating the European and world champions Spain.

Just two years ago, the Italy team was reprimanded by their own fans and media, after embarrassingly getting knocked out of the World Cup in 2010 by Slovakia. Reports insisted that it was their most humiliating defeat since losing to North Korea in the 1966 World Cup in England. The team was deflated - a far cry from their 2006 World Cup win, which was their fourth World Cup title.

However, Italy have surprised everyone at Euro 2012. After drawing their first two games, many had predicted an early exit for the Azzurri . But they won their final game and progressed to the quarter finals for a match up against England. A resilient England side refused to buckle from an onslaught by Italy over the regular 90 minutes, and the 30 minutes of extra time, resulting in a 0-0 stalemate. But again, Italy, who themselves have a terrible penalty shoot out record, held their nerve to knock out the English 4-2 on penalties.

Italy had made it through to the semi final - an achievement most would have said exceeded expectations for this Italian side going into the tournament. But surely their dream was to end at the hands of a skillful and fluent German side, who had eased their way through the most difficult group in Euro 2012, and had rarely looked troubled by any side so far. If Portugal and the Netherlands were unable to trouble Germany, what hope would Italy have seeing as their strike force had seemed blunted throughout the tournament so far? But no Italian side in the nation's proud soccer history had even lost to a German side in a major tournament, and this team would refuse to become the first victims. Italy resisted the German onslaught early on and slowly came to dominate the game in the first half - scoring twice to stun not only the Germans, but world soccer fans everywhere. Ultimately the Italians proved their experience in defeating the younger German side, which will surely have its day in future tournaments.

This will be Italy's eighth final in a major tournament, although they have only won the Euro championship once in 1968, back in the days where a draw would trigger a full reply, rather than the ruthless penalty shoot outs now seen.

Italy did reach the final of Euro 2000 but lost to France by a Golden Goal.

Spain will undoubtedly prove as difficult, if not more difficult, an opposition as Germany. Although the German side had style and attacking threat all over the pitch, this Spanish side doesn't know how to lose - not even conceding a goal in the knock out stages of major tournaments since 2006.

Spain vs. Italy will kick off Sunday at 2.45 p.m. EST. The match can be viewed online ESPN3 LIVE STREAM.

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