The world champions began their Euro 2008 campaign against seeds Holland, a team they had not lost to in 30 years. Their last European Championship meeting was the epic semi-final in 2000, won by the Azzurri on penalties despite Gianluca Zambrotta's dismissal 34 minutes in. Roberto Donadoni surprised many by leaving Daniele De Rossi on the bench in favour of an all-Milan midfield, while Gianluigi Buffon took the captain's armband. Holland were missing Arjen Robben, Robin Van Persie and Mario Melchiot.
Injured Fabio Cannavaro was given permission to sit on the bench as a non-playing captain, but only because a physiotherapist moved to the stands to keep inside the limits.
Antonio Di Natale's cross was just a little too fast for Luca Toni to tap in from five yards, then Andrea Barzagli charged down a Ruud Van Nistelrooy effort. Wesley Sneijder's free kick hit the wall and as the move continued Buffon smothered a hopeful long-range attempt from Rafael Van Der Vaart.
The first major scare came on 17 minutes, as Van Nistelrooy ran on to a Dirk Kuyt through ball, but Buffon did just enough to put him off and the Real Madrid striker went too wide to get the finish into an empty net!
Marco Materazzi risked an own goal as he flicked a Sneijder free kick off the head of Van Nistelrooy at the back post.
Holland took the lead in extremely controversial circumstances. Van Der Vaart's free kick was punched by Buffon, but only as far as Giovanni Van Bronckhorst, whose shot was redirected from four yards by Van Nistelrooy. He seemed to be clearly offside, but the linesman considered Panucci to be keeping him onside, although he was off the pitch having collided with Buffon. Toni was particularly angry and was booked for dissent.
Italy had a great chance to equalise moments later from an Andrea Pirlo corner kick, but it was cleared off the line by Van Bronckhorst with Edwin Van Der Sar beaten.
However, on the counter-attack the Dutch doubled their advantage with a sensational goal from Sneijder. A long cross-field pass was nodded back into the middle by Kuyt for Sneijder's right-foot volley between Buffon and the near post. Italy were left wide open as they poured forward to seek an equaliser.
A brilliant Di Natale volley from Camoranesi's cross went through Khalid Boulahrouz's legs, but Van Der Sar performed a lucky reaction save. Zambrotta also went into the book for a late tackle on Kuyt.
Camoranesi intercepted a pass from 20 metres, but the through ball could not find Toni. Yet it could've been 3-0 on the stroke of half-time when a pass cut out Materazzi to reach Van Nistelrooy and an outstretched Buffon foot deflected it over the bar. Di Natale had another promising opportunity and smashed a shot on the bounce too high to trouble Van Der Sar.
Donadoni made no substitutions, though Gattuso was booked for repeated fouling. Zambrotta ran on to an inspired Pirlo pass, skipped past Kuyt at the byeline and flashed a shot across the face of goal.
Fabio Grosso replaced Materazzi, moving Panucci into central defence and Zambrotta over to right-back in a completely reshuffled back line. Ambrosini dispossessed Nigel De Jong and the Dutchman was booked for hauling back the Milan midfielder to end a potential counter.
Toni couldn't get enough power on his turn and Pirlo's ambitious free kick hit the side-netting as Italy began to pile on the pressure. Alessandro Del Piero came off the bench for another tactical adjustment, replacing Di Natale. Within minutes of stepping on to the field, Del Piero shrugged off Andre Ooijer and his right-foot swerver was smothered by former Juventus teammate Van Der Sar.
Del Piero gathered another Pirlo assist and curled just over from a promising angle. Robin Van Persie has been struggling with injury, but replaced Van Nistelrooy for the final 20 minutes. Donadoni gambled all the way to recover from 2-0 and threw on Antonio Cassano for Camoranesi and the dream trident.
A minute after coming on, Cassano's flicked pass over the top allowed Toni to spring the offside trap, but the Bayern Munich hitman incredibly ballooned his chip over the bar with only the goalkeeper to beat.
There was an equally clear chance moments later, as Grosso rode Kuyt's tackle and his angled drive from eight yards was beaten away on the ground by Van Der Sar, then Del Piero was anticipated before he could tap in.
Yet again the Azzurri knocked at the door, but Van Der Sar performed a stunning save on Pirlo's free kick into the top corner. But once more Holland struck on the counter-attack to make it 3-0. Buffon did remarkably well to deny the first effort from Kuyt, but could do nothing on a Van Bronckhorst free header that hit Zambrotta on the way in.
The action continued with substitute Afellay's cheeky cross-shot clipping the crossbar and Van Persie flashed an effort wide as the Italy defence went to sleep. Del Piero had the chance to at least get a consolation goal in stoppages, but it was deflected out for a corner off Toni's stop.
Holland: Van der Sar; Ooijer, Mathijsen, Bouhlarouz (Heitinga 77), Van Bronckhorst; De Jong, Engelaar; Sneijder, Van Der Vaart, Kuyt (Afellay 81); Van Nistelrooy (Van Persie 70)
Italy: Buffon; Panucci, Materazzi (Grosso 54), Barzagli, Zambrotta; Gattuso, Pirlo, Ambrosini; Camoranesi (Cassano 75), Toni, Di Natale (Del Piero 64)
Ref: Frojdfeldt (Swe)
1 comments:
Look, I understand you're a fan of Italy, but the first goal of this match was made with an Italian player laying by the goal. He hadn't been taken out of the game, nor had gameplay been stopped, so, as bitter as it may be, the goal was valid.
The ref was right to let the game go on as well, since there was no injury on the Italian side after the goal.
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