SLOVAKIA OUST ITALY IN THRILLING FINISH
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 25 Jun 2010
In a thrilling game of football Slovakia held off a furious charge by Italy late in the match to win 3-2 and reach the Round of 16 and in the process eliminate the FIFA World Cup champions who like another previous winners France in 1998 have had a miserable season.
Robert Vittek was the architect of Slovakia?s win with two previous goals while a stoppage time goal by Kamil Kopunek proved crucial in the end after the fighting Italians, playing their best football so far saw late goals from Antonio Di Natale and Fabio Quagliarella guaranteed a dramatic finish in the Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg.
Both teams realized they needed to win to stay alive although the Italians could have settled for a draw to salvage a place in the knockout round.
The FIFA noted in its match report that to the disappointment of the Italians the visionary Andrea Pirlo was only fit enough to ride the bench, but Gennaro Gattuso and Di Natale were handed starts.
Slovakia started off well and in the sixth minute, Vittek nodded a long ball into the path of Marek Hamsik, although the latter could only drag his volley wide. And the two exchanged roles six minutes later, with Hamsik squaring the ball to Vittek but Italian goalkeeper Federico Marchetti reacted quickly and confidently to the threat..
But on the 25th minute he wasn?t so luck as the pressure of the occasion clearly got to De Rossi, whose pass was easily intercepted by Erik Jendrisek just outside of the Italian box. He promptly found Vittek and the Slovakian fired into the bottom corner to give his side a deserved lead.
Marcello Lippi's men had failed to get going in their previous two matches, and they were lacking inspiration here, too. Di Natale, Daniele De Rossi and Simone Pepe all found themselves in potential scoring positions, but were unable to make them count. Gattuso's threatening cross was headed over by Martin Skrtel as Vincenzo Iaquinta looked to profit but as the F IFA match rbeport noted there was no real punch to the Italy attack.
The AC Milan veteran was, typically, terrier-like in midfield, looking to knock the Slovakians out of their stride, but it was Weiss's side that continued to look the more likely scorers - Zdenko Strba forced Marchetti to palm his 35-yard drive off target, Miroslav Stoch had a shot blocked, and Juraj Kucka watched his long-range effort flash inches wide deep into first-half stoppage time.
Lippi reshuffled his side at the break, with Christian Maggio and Quagliarella coming on in place of Gattuso and Domenico Criscito, as they searched for a crucial goal. Iaquinta almost the found the target five minutes in but his header lacked direction. The same could be said for his team as a whole, who were lacking the required creativity ? which explained why the Italian fans, at last, found their voice when Pirlo was introduced to the game in the 56th minute, shortly after a woeful finish from Di Natale.
As Pirlo begin to guide proceedings from the centre of the park, Di Natale almost made up for his miss but Jan Mucha was equal to his curling shot. Italy were, at last, stepping up a gear and when Pepe's cross was beaten away by the Slovakia goalkeeper, Quagliarella could only look on in dismay as his left-footed shot was hooked off the line by Skrtel.
Slovakia, however, remained a match for Italy and minutes after Stoch's drive had fizzed a yard over, Vittek thought he had put the game out of reach when he beat Giorgio Chiellini to Hamsik's squared ball. However, Di Natale was able to pull one back ten minutes from time, before Kopunek restored the two-goal advantage. Quagliarella's late strike set up a thrilling finish, but it was not enough for Lippi's men, who were left to contemplate a disastrous FIFA World Cup campaign..
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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