Cesc Fabregas rescued Spain with a delightful goal as the defending champions drew 1-1 with Italy.
In the day's other game, Croatia outclassed Republic of Ireland 3-1.
In a surprisingly enterprising game, Italy gave as much as they received as Spain, looking for an unprecedented third-successive major championship, found it hard to dominate. Antonio Di Natale scored for Italy on the hour mark, but Fabregas, preferred for Fernando Torres, cancelled out the goal with a strike in the 64th minute.
Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque decided to not employ a striker, with the attacking trio of Fabregas, David Silva and Andres Iniesta, forming the front three. Xavi, as always, was pulling the strings from midfield and Spain looked dangerous whenever the four midfielders got on the ball in the final third.
Spain, however, failed to find any real cutting edge in front of goal as the Italy defense held firm. Italy, on the other hand, led by the classy Andrea Pirlo and Antonio Cassano, were also looking dangerous going forward and had the best chance of the first half.
Cassano created the opening, when his wicked cross from the right was well headed by Thiago Motta, only for Iker Casillas to make a brilliant one-handed reflex save.
After the break, Mario Balotelli, who started in place of Di Natale, should have put Italy in front. The Manchester City striker showed good hustle to steal the ball away from Sergio Ramos on the right. With just the goalkeeper to beat, Balotelli strangely thought he had all the time in the world, allowing Ramos, who had fallen down on the far touchline, to recover and make a challenge.
The frustrated striker was soon replaced by Di Natale and it turned out to be a perfect substitution. Pirlo made a great run from midfield and played a perfect through pass to Di Natale, who had beaten the offside trap. The Udinese striker then calmly slotted it past Casillas to make it 1-0.
However, the lead was shortlived. A nice pass from the outside of his left foot from Silva, sent Fabregas through and the Barcelona midfielder made no mistake.
Torres came on for Fabregas in the final 20 minutes and had two glorious chances to give Spain the lead. The first saw him hesitate in a one-on-one situation with Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, allowing the 'keeper to make the save easily. The Chelsea striker then saw his chip go over the crossbar with Buffon well out of his line.
After the match, Fabregas said he was not happy with the state of the pitch. "I don't want to complain, but we deserve much more. It is lamentable that we have to play on a pitch like this.
"It was a difficult match, the most difficult one we have in the group against a very strong rival. After going behind it is not a bad result. We are still dependent on ourselves. We have shown character and played well."
Del Bosque stood by his decision not to start with a striker. "We wanted to have superiority in the midfield so that we could have possession and arrive higher up the pitch. Silva, Cesc and Iniesta arrived very well from the second line of attack and I think they did very well in a lot of moments.
"The plan didn't go badly, Cesc did very well in this position. When Fernando Torres came on the match was much more open. We had more chances to score, but so did they and we can't forget that. Time will tell whether this is a good point or not."
In the second game, two goals from Mario Madzukic and one from Nikica Jelavic helped Croatia to a 3-1 victory. Sean St Ledger scored Ireland's only goal.