Euro 2012 Qualifier: Estonia 1-2 vs. Italy: Italy Score 2 Goals in 2nd Half for a Convincing Win
First Half: Italy 0, Estonia 1.
As the Italians lagged behind throughout the first half and were no match for the Estonian's pace, in the second half the Italian side was expected to make a comeback. However, it was definitely not easy, as the Estonians looked to be well organized at the back and looked as if they can easily defend their only goal and even score one more on the Italian side who are actually famous for their defence.
Even though the Italians conceded a goal in the first half, it is true that they were not doing "too bad" at the back and were organizing well on the defence. In the second half, both the coaches didn't change anything till the 59th minute, when the Italian side changed Simone Pepe and brought on Fabio Quagliarella.
The change at first didn't look to be very attractive, as many thought that it was a foolish thing to deploy another midfielder, but soon it was seen how he aided the Italian midfield. Even though the Italians were charging up now, it was hard to get past the Estonian defence as they kept on playing with their fast flowing football. The Italians, on the other hand, played totally different football and tried to keep the ball close to their own 18 yard box, which is always a weak thing to do, but with amazing and paced strikers, the Italians were planning counterattacks.
Soon, they did actually get a breakthrough. In the 60th minute, Antonio Cassano managed to score a goal for the Italian side as a lovely ball from Andrea Pirlo was well served and Cassano made no mistake and by moving fast, he was able to get past the Estonian defensive walls and managed to score a goal with his stronger right foot.
Things started to change for the Italian side, as they were now attacking the tired Estonian defence, and they started to exploit them pretty well. In the 63rd minute, another great ball from Pirlo was taken well by Pazzini and he managed to sneak it to Leonardo Bonucci. The amazing Italian striker managed to bag himself a goal with an outstanding strike as he managed to help the team lead the game.
After the disappointment, the Estonian goal-scorer was taken off in the next minute and Kaimar Saag was brought on to help the team add pace to their attack, while there were no changes seen from the Italian side, yet.
The Italians now started to play like they did in the first half and started to defend the one goal advantage that they had. They tried not to leave open spaces and tried to frustrate their opponents by passing the ball amongst themselves while the Estonians made brutal tackles on them.
There was no warning seen yet and soon it was Paombo who came on and Montolivo was taken off. On the other hand, Ats Purje came on for Sander Puri just to add pace at the back as the Italians were trying to counterattack at times. Indeed, the counterattacking strategy was working perfectly for the Italian players. However, everyone could see that the "spark" that was seen back in 2006 was totally missing from the side. The young squad is definitely not going to be any match for teams like Germany and Spain, as these sides play amazing total football and they can easily break such defences down.
Soon, in the 80th minute, Luca Antonelli came on for Cassano; the youngster was just brought on for 10 minutes to gain the experience that he needed to perform in the Italian team.
The new Italian coach did not really use a lot on the wings and did not really utilize the midfield but he definitely worked on the Italian defence, which is what the Italians are famous for. He kept the tradition alive of counterattacking football and showed the world that old tactics can work out if you try.
Tarmo Kink came on for Estonia in the 82nd minute just to add a little experience to the team, but it seemed as if it was too little too late for Estonia, as Klavan earned the second yellow card of the match during the 85th minute.
When the match ended, it was the Italians who raised their hands with joy as they won the match 2-1 with an amazing comeback victory. They only took 3 minutes to totally destroy the Estonian dreams as they scored the first goal in the 60th minute and scored the second in the 63rd minute. However, the Italians don't look to be the favourites for the European Championship. They are playing a very inexperienced squad and they are soon going to meet big fishes in the pond that they are swimming in.
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