updated 7:08 p.m. ET June 22, 2008

VIENNA, Austria - When a team has gone so long without a big win, it doesn’t care how that victory comes.

For Spain, it came in the form of a penalty-kicks shootout over World Cup champion Italy, 4-2 after a lackluster 0-0 draw through 120 minutes Sunday night in the European Championship quarterfinals.

“We finally had the luck that we have been missing,” goalkeeper Iker Casillas said after saving two penalty kicks.

It was much more than luck, though. Spain showed the kind of fortitude it often has lacked in big tournaments. And Casillas was brilliant in the shootout, guessing right on all four kicks, and stopping Daniele De Rossi and Antonio Di Natale.

“We deserved this,” Casillas added.

Cesc Fabregas scored the decisive penalty kick, setting up a semifinal against Russia on Thursday night in Vienna. Spain, the only group winner to make the semifinals, beat the Russians 4-1 in their group opener.

“What happened before is not important now,” Casillas said. “We don’t feel like champions just because we beat Russia in the first round.”

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 shootout. Fabio Grosso and Mauro Camoranesi connected for Italy, but Casillas was the difference.

“I was sure he was going to stop the penalties,” Spain coach Luis Aragones said. “I was sure.”

It was the first victory for Spain over Italy in a major competition in 88 years — since the 1920 Olympics. Aragones said Spain’s King Juan Carlos went into the locker room after the match and spoke to the players.

The last quarterfinal of the tournament often was sleep-inducing, played at a crawl, with neither side willing to open up the game. Instead, there were dozens of fouls, misplayed crosses and enough falling over to resemble an Olympic diving competition. Fans jeered both teams at halftime, and there were 51 fouls in the match.

“We didn’t play great football,” Aragones said, “but neither did Italy.”

Spain created more openings, but neither team performed at anything like its peak. Spain’s best opportunity came in the 81st minute, when Buffon dropped a fierce long-range shot by Senna. The ball squirmed out of his hands and rolled back to hit the post before landing softly back in his arms.

Slideshow Just for kicks Take a look at soccer wives and girlfriends from all over the world. NBCSports.com

David Silva shot inches wide early in extra time.

One close call for Italy came when substitute Camoranesi had a goal-bound shot blocked by the legs of Casillas in the 61st minute. Otherwise, with key midfielders Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso suspended, the world champions seemed content to stifle a Spain team that had shown some of the best attacking soccer in the group stages.

“Clearly losing on penalties after working so hard doesn’t leave us happy,” Italy coach Roberto Donadoni said. “We all spent a lot of energy. You’ve got to recall those who didn’t play tonight. They’ve got to be the most disappointed, and I’m sorry for them.”

One of those who didn’t play, Gattuso, wouldn’t complain about how Italy’s Euros ended.

“We’re very bitter, but we still have a lot of pride,” he said. “Losing on penalties happens. We won the World Cup on penalties.”

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