Totti
At the very death…the very last minute the Italians booked their place in the quater-finals.
Was it a deserving win? far from it of course,the Aussie’s produced much more in this game to suggest that the were the rightful owner of a place in the last 8 but this is football,it’s nothing about ‘deserving’ it’s all about taking your chances and a stroke of good fortune.
Fortune smiled brightly on the spaghetti’s Italians as they managed to beat a resilient Socceroos side 1-0 thanks to a late dubious penalty from Totti,and they did it with 10 man after Marco Materazzi was red carded in the 51st minute.
Both sides started the game pretty much with the same team in the previous games,with the Italians playing Del Piero instead of Totti behind Luca Toni & Alberto Gilardino while for the Aussie’s Mark Schwarzer was recalled to replace fumbling Zeljko Kalac and Marco Bresciano to take the place of the injured Harry kewell.
The Socceroos began in confident fashion and almost stunned their opponents in the opening minute, with Scott Chipperfield’s cross picking out Tim Cahill in the box but the Everton midfielder could not find any power in his header.
Toni then latched on to Del Piero’s dangerous cross and headed inches wide of the far post while Chipperfield made a vital block with Alberto Gilardino ready to shoot from Del Piero’s beautiful assist.
Mark Viduka had the opportunity to place the Socceroos in front from a close-range header from Bresciano’s free-kick but it proved an easy catch for goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
Luca Toni must be one of the unluckliest fowards in this tournament as several of his shots were either off the mark or was brilliantly parried away by Mark Schwarzer.
Five minutes after the re-start Spanish referee Luis Medina Cantalejo showed a straight red to Materazzi for a two-footed tackle on Bresciano, whose subsequent free-kick fizzed wide of Buffon’s far post.
On the hour Chipperfield tested Buffon with a stinging drive which the keeper did well to clear before Wilkshire was then booked for an unnecessary challenge on Del Piero.
The Australians continued to press foward and take advantage of it’s numerical superiority but i guess the searing heat had taken it’s toll on most players and they fialed to carved out a goal.The Italians on the other hand looked pretty much happy & prepared to take the game into extra time.
But in the end it was a stoke of bad luck for the Australians as Lucas Neill was adjudged to have taken down Fabio Grosso in the penalty box with just 5 seconds remaining,Italians favourite son- Francescco Totti made no mistake from the spot.
1-0 it finished to the Italians who will now meet Ukraine in the quater finals after they overcame the Swiss.
No disgrace in defeat..well done socceroos
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Yeah, much to my supprise, the socceroos did very well.