2010 World Cup Slovakia v Italy full time report
Slovakia 3 Italy 2
World champions Italy have been knocked out of the 2010 World Cup finals at the group stages following a shock 3-2 defeat at the hands of Slovakia.
Two goals from Robert Vittek and another from Kamil Kopunek were enough to sink the four-time world champions. A late strike from Antonio Di Natale and a stunning effort from Fabio Quagliarella eventually proved mere consolations.
It’s only the fourth time in World Cup history that the holders of the prestigious trophy have been dumped out at the group stages, following Italy in 1950, Brazil in 1966 and France in 2002.
The Slovakians were on top throughout the opening stages of the match and should have taken an early lead through Marek Hamsik. The highly-rated youngster found himself in acres of space in the Italian box, but misfired his volley past Federico Marchetti’s far post.
Vittek would soon make amends for his teammate’s miss, though. Daniele De Rossi’s awful misplaced pass was intercepted easily by Hamsik, and he fed Vittek, who dispatched the ball past Marchetti from the edge of the area on the 24th minute.
Having gone into the break 1-0 down, Italy were left with an uphill struggle to salvage something from the match. Although not insurmountable, the Slovakians had impressed in the opening 45 minutes and looked good value for their lead.
Italy boss Marcello Lippi threw on Christian Maggio and Quagliarella at half-time in a bid to spark a turnaround in fortunes. He needed to take some action, and 10 minutes after the break, Lippi was forced into playing his whole deck of cards by sending on his third and final substitute, Andrea Pirlo for Ricardo Montolivo.
This came moments after Antonio Di Natale had just spurned a good opportunity to pull the Azzurri level. Christian Maggio, the half-time substitute, threaded a probing ball through to the Italy number 10, but the striker could only drag his shot wide of the post.
On the 62nd minute, Di Natale then got another shot off on goal from the edge of the box. This time he did test Mucha with a curling effort, but the Slovakian goalkeeper was equal to it.
There was then a controversial moment minutes later, which is sure to lead to a whole host of investigations and inquisitions over the forthcoming weeks. Quagliarella’s goalbound shot was cleared off the line by Martin Skrtel. Replays were inconclusive, but it wasn’t apparent that the whole ball was behind the line. The English match officials seemed to make the right call to wave play on.
By this point the match was hugely stretched and there for the taking. Slovakia’s Miroslav Stoch picked up the ball in the attacking third and ran at the Italian backline, and with a better shot would have made it 2-0.
Just five minutes later, though, the Azzurri had been dealt an almighty sucker-punch.
A poorly cleared Slovakia corner wasn’t dealt with by the four-time world champions, which allowed Hamsik to easily pick out Vittek, who in turn was able to steal in past the sleeping Giorgio Chiellini. His composed finished past Marchetti made the score, amazingly, 2-0 to the team ranked 34th in the world.
Italy were on the ropes, on the brink of elimination. They knew that if the scores stayed the same, it would be an embarrassment of epic proportions to rivals France’s from 2002.
However, Di Natale’s goal 10 minutes before half-time provided a ray of light at the end of the tunnel. Good work again from Quagliarella, who had made a tremendous impact since coming on after the break, allowed him to exchange passes with Vincenzo Iaquinta. The 27-year-old’s shot was well saved by Mucha, but Di Natale was on hand to tuck away the rebound.
It was now an onslaught on the Slovakia goal. Italy were piling on the pressure and looked odds on to snatch the equalising goal that would have sent them through to the last 16.
With just six minutes of normal time remaining, Quagliarella had snatched a dramatic late leveler for the Azzurri. Or so it seemed. The assistant referee raised his flag to signal an offside, and replays proved that it was the right call despite the margins being agonisingly narrow.
And then, four minutes later, came the killer blow for the former champions.
Italy’s defenders were all at sea, and a quick throw in from Slovakia was capitalised on by debutant Kopunek, who impudently lifted the ball over the hapless Marchetti to make it 3-1.
Cue shocked looks of misery from the Italian faithful, Lippi and his players. This was never in the script. Just four years ago, the famous Azzurri were world beaters; and today they were on the verge of being eliminated from the subsequent World Cup bottom of the group behind New Zealand.
There was still time for the imperious Quagliarella to score perhaps the best goal of the tournament so far in the 91st minute. A glorious chip from his right-boot sailed over Mucha to again give the Italians hope in this most dramatic of finishes.
Simone Pepe then had the final chance of Italy’s World Cup campaign to rescue a tournament-saving point. However, he couldn’t connect at the back post, and the world champions were dumped out of the tournament for the shock of the 2010 World Cup finals.
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