Unai Simon was the hero as he made two saves in the shoot-out to send Spain through to the semi-finals of the Euro 2020.
Luis Enrique's men made a dream start when Jordi Alba's strike from long range deflected off Denis Zakaria, who replaced the suspended Granit Xhaka in the side, and wrongfooted Yann Sommer after eight minutes.
And Switzerland's task was made harder when Breel Embolo went off midway in the first half with a suspected hamstring injury.
Vladimir Petković's side had a string of chances from corners with Manuel Akanji heading over and Zakaria nodding it inches wide after the break.
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And they equalised after a mix-up between Pau Torres and Aymeric Laporte led to Xherdan Shaqiri netting from close range.
The game took another twist when Remo Freuler was shown a straight red for hacking down Gerard Moreno in the closing stages.
But the Spanish were unable to capitalise on their man advantage with Moreno spurning three opportunities in extra time including missing the target from around six yards out.
In the resulting shoot-out Sergio Busquets missed first for Spain, making it six in a row, before Dani Olmo scored his team’s second to level it up before Simon saved Fabian Schar’s effort to make it one miss each.
Sommer and Simon each made another save before the tide turned with Moreno sending a thumping effort into the top corner and then Ruben Vargas skied his effort.
That left it down to Mikel Oyarzabal, who made no mistake and sent his country through to the semis against either Belgium or Italy.
Source: Eurosport