Although "Catenaccio" has still come to be associated with the Italian national side and Italian club teams, due to its historic association with Italian football, it is actually used quite infrequently by Serie A and Italian national teams in contemporary football, who instead currently prefer to apply balanced tactics and formations, mostly using the 5–3–2 or 3–5–2 system. For example, under manager Cesare Prandelli, the Italian national football team also initially used the 3–5–2 formation, which had been popularised by Juventus manager Antonio Conte throughout the previous Serie A season following his success in the league; although Prandelli used a ball–playing sweeper, he also used attacking wing-backs and a more offensive–minded approach with Italy. In their first two clashes of UEFA Euro 2012 Group C, the system resulted in two 1–1 draws against Spain and Croatia. He subsequently switched to a stylish attacking possession-based system using their 'standard' 4–4–2 diamond formation for the knockout stages; the switch proved to be effective, as the team went on to reach the final, where they suffered a 4–0 defeat to a similarly more offensive-minded Spanish side, who used a possession–based strategy based on passing known as "tiki-taka". Rob Smyth of "The Guardian" was critical of Spain's striker–less formation and particular brand of "tiki-taka" at UEFA Euro 2012, however, believing that the lack of emphasis on the offensive aspect of the game led to fewer goals, and that the team's seemingly endless passing and preoccupation with ball–possession was in fact boring, dubbing it "Tiki-takanaccio," a reference to the defensive–minded "catenaccio" tactical system, despite the fact that "tiki-taka" had ironically originated from the more offensive minded Dutch "total football" strategy.