Mario Balotelli was thrilled to inspire Italy to the finals of Euro 2012, describing the semi-final win against Germany as "the best night of my career."
Balotelli scored a double to give Italy a 2-1 win over much-fancied Germany, and the Italians will now take on Spain in the finale on Sunday in Kiev.
"This was the best night of my career, but I hope that Sunday will be even better," he told Rai Sport.
"I dedicated the goals to my mother, she was at the stadium tonight.
"I am very happy because I wanted to score for her. On Sunday, my father will be here too, so I would like to score."
Balotelli was confident his side could get the better of defending champions Spain.
"We do not have to be scared of Spain," the 21-year-old said. "We know how they play. We know we can beat them.
"We will have to be patient and wait for them, because they make a lot of passes, but we know we can win."
Andrea Pirlo, who again was at his majestic best against Germany, said the semi-final win would mean nothing if Italy could not go all the way. "We have not won anything yet," Pirlo said.
"Not to win would be like going to Rome and not seeing the Pope.
"We are convinced that we will have a great match against Spain. But if we want to have a chance to win, we will need to show the same spirit and desire we showed tonight and in the match against England."
Italy coach Cesare Prandelli hailed Balotelli's performance. "This has been his best performance so far," Prandelli said.
"He fought, he ran, we knew he could be one of our key players. He might only have 50 minutes in his legs but they are 50 fantastic minutes.
"I am very proud of these young players, of this side. They (Germany) have very good players. They are a young side but we are a team that has a lot of ideas of how we want to play the game.
"We have no time to celebrate but must concentrate on the next game, which is the most important one in the tournament.
"You dream but this is only the beginning of the dream."
Germany coach Joachim Low admitted his players were devastated by the loss. "The disappointment is great. Nobody is speaking in the dressing room. The players are crying.
"I'm not going to question everything we've done. The team has great quality. It will continue to develop and learn.
"We've had two great years. The team has really developed well. We won 15 games in a row but lost today against an incredibly strong Italian side, with a strong axis and two great strikers.
"There's no reason to doubt ourselves. Our team was the youngest team here.
"Even though there's disappointment today, we played a wonderful tournament and I am sure we will be able to cope with this defeat."
Germany captain Philipp Lahm bemoaned the defensive mistakes which led to Italy's two goals. "It's very, very bitter. We made mistakes that led to those two goals. We worked hard in the first half and we had chances but you can't give up goals like that.
"Every defeat is bitter, especially after getting so far in the tournament. But if you can't get the job done at the right time or aren't clever enough in certain situations then you lose.
"The most bitter thing is that this team has potential for so much more."
