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| "World Cup Defending Champions, Italy Dumped By 34th Ranked Slovakia"
Posting by Staff
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 June 24, 2010
ROBERT VITTEK'S double salvo dumped defending champions Italy out of the World Cup.
The Slovakia striker bagged a brace and substitute Kamil Kopunek struck late on to put their country through to the last 16 as the Azzurri crashed out at the group stages for the first time since 1974.
Marcello Lippi's flops have looked sluggish, old and short of ideas throughout the tournament - and this latest defeat will send shockwaves through the Italian game.
Deprived of the creative flair of Andrea Pirlo for their first two games against Paraguay and New Zealand, Italy have looked short on ideas during their brief stay in South Africa.
A lack of young talent has seen Lippi forced to rely on old stagers like Gennaro Gattuso, Gianluuca Zambrotta and Fabio Cannavaro, but those three in particular have looked well off the pace.
Slovakia - ranked 34 in the world - put up a resolute defence against an Italian frontline boasting Simone Pepe, Vincenzo Iaquinta and Antonio Di Natale.
And it was they who had the first chance of the game when Vittel flicked the ball through to Hamsik, only for the striker put his volley wide of Federico Marchetti's post.
Both teams struggled to create any meaningful opportunities in the opening quarter of an hour as each side failed to settle.
But on 25 minutes the game sprang to life thanks to an error from Italy captain Daniel De Rossi.
The Roma midfielder made a sloppy pass just outside of his own area which was intercepted by Vittek, who brushed past one challenge to fire the ball into the bottom left hand corner to hand Slovakia the advantage.
Marchetti was called into action again 10 minutes later when he kept Zdeno Strba's 35-yard rocket out.
The world champions were rattled and their heads began to drop as Slovakia began to stamp their authority on the game.
Strba was then carried off on a stretcher following a bad challenge from Gennaro Gattuso two minutes before half-time as the Italians started to implode.
But amazingly Strba returned to the field seconds before the half time whistle sounded.
Lippi threw on Christian Maggio and Fabio Quagliarella for Domenico Criscito and Gattuso for the second period.
But neither man made any real impact and it wasn't until Pirlo replace Montolivo on 57 minutes that Italy sparked.
The Italians began to pushed forward and Slovakia's defence - expertly marshalled by Martin Skrtel - held firm.
And the Slovakians amazingly scored a second goal on 72 minutes, with that man Vittel poking past Marchetti at the near post to compiound Italy's misery.
Quagliarella then had a fierce shot palmed out by Jan Mucha in the Slovak goal, but Di Natale was on hand to pull a goal back for the Italians with nine minutes to play.
Then, with five minutes left to play substitute Kopunek found space in the box to crash home Slovakia's third goal to kill of Italy's dreams.
Quagliarella then scored with a terrific 30-yard chip in the first minute of injury time as Italy poured forward in desperate search of an equaliser.
But it was too little too late and they will be joining New Zealand on the early plane home as group winners Slovakia and runners up Paraguay progress to the next stage.
Source: The Sun |
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