Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Great Comeback By The Azzurri
The blue jersey of Italy had quite a bit of black and white in it as Italy beat the USA in Pretoria in their first match of the Confederations Cup. The starting line-up fielded by Marcello Lippi in fact included 5 bianconeri: Buffon, Legrottaglie, Chiellini, Camoranesi and Iaquinta. New signing Fabio Cannavaro was on the bench as he is still recovering from an injury. In the absence of Italy’s captain the role was inherited by Buffon.
The first few minutes saw the USA closing up the midfield and hence making it difficult for the azzurri to advance and basing their initiatives on the counter-attack. On the 19th minute Legrottaglie tried a header from a corner with the ball going wide while on the 25th minute it was Buffon who performed a good save. Legrottaglie had a very good match right from the start, not only covering up well in the defence but also going close to scoring on a couple of occasions. One of these was on the 28th minute when the Juventus defender tried a good header on a ball from a Camoranesi corner. One minute later it was Chiellini who tried his luck at goal.
The USA had Clark sent-off on the 33rd minute for a foul on Gattuso. On the 40th minute however a Chiellini foul in the area saw the referee pointing to the penalty spot and Donovan scored for the USA advantage from the eleven metres. On the 42nd minute Buffon performed a great save.
In the second half the azzurri seemed to be very determined from the first minute and immediately showed their intention to turn the result round. On the 55th minute Marcello Lippi decided to shuffle his cards and brought on Montolivo and Rossi for Camoranesi and Gattuso respectively.Three minutes after coming on to the field Rossi stole a ball in the midfield, advanced and shot from outside the area scoring a beautiful goal and equalising. On the 67th minute a great shot by Iaquinta went wide and one minute later it was Toni who came on for Gilardino.
On the 71st minute De Rossi with a beautiful long distance shot netted the ball for the 2-1. The azzurri continued to dominate and apart from a good save by Buffon on the 79th minute and a few humble attempts by the Americans it was a one sided match all the way.
The last bit of action was also that of the third and last goal by the azzurri. On the 93rd minute in fact a great bit of azzurri action ending with a perfect cross by Pirlo saw Rossi shooting home for the final 3-1.
Italy with this victory are first in Group B together with Brazil who earlier today beat Egypt by 4-3 in a match decided by a Kaka penalty in the last minute. Italy will now play Egypt on Thursday 18th June at 20:30hrs.
Juventus.com
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