The Arena AufSchalke stadium in Gelsenkirchen, the venue for Thursday's Mediterranean derby, has among its many peculiarities a dressing room tunnel that is designed to look like the corridor of a coal mine, where for centuries miners have used a canary to measure the safety of the environment and the presence of noxious gases.
For this reason, counting on the metaphor of the canary in the mine is equivalent to that of sounding out the viability of a project, something similar for Spain to that of facing Italy at a European Championships: submitting to the scrutiny offered only by Italy is the best yardstick to measure the depths to which we will reach at this continental football tournament.
So, this 20 June at 21:00 (Spanish peninsular time, with live coverage on La1 and comprehensive reporting on official social media) the national team faces the Azzurri in a test that, although it will not be definitive in terms of their chances in the tournament, it will be highly indicative of how far we can go.
Click here to listen to coach Luis de la Fuente and player Fabián Ruiz’s comments before the match.
It will be the fifth consecutive European Championship in which we will meet the Italians and none of the previous ones were dull affairs: the 2008 penalty shootout win paved the way to the triple crown, the 2012 final was the pinnacle for the golden generation, the 2016 elimination largely put an end to it, while the spot-kicks three years ago at Wembley deprived Spain of a continental final they should have reached on merit.
This time the praise for the national team's play is once again unanimous after the brilliant opening match in Germany, but the coach has already announced that his team will not let the praise go to their heads, even when it comes from the opposition bench.
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Luciano Spalletti, coach of the reigning champions, praised Spain's play, while at the same time saying his side have a more direct approach, with a revamped squad that has just come from beating Albania in the opening match and is based on the energy of youngsters Calafiori, Fagioli and Scamacca, along with European champions such as Di Lorenzo, Jorginho and Federico Chiesa.
An incredibly demanding opponent against a Spain side that once again has its full squad available, with Rodrigo Hernandez in danger of suspension after the yellow card he picked up against the Croatians in Berlin.
Slovenian referee Slavko Vinčić will officiate, with Poland's Bartosz Frankowski acting as video assistant referee.
Victory over Italy would mean we are Group B winners and into the Last 16, playing against a third-placed team from another group on Sunday 30 June, with the group stage still to be completed on Monday against Albania in Düsseldorf.
There is a massive prize up for grabs tonight, in the heart of the Ruhr mining region, where thousands of Spanish fans will be cheering their team on in Gelsenkirchen and hoping for a place in the Last 16 at the end of the day.
