FIFA 2010 World Cup: Italy knocked out, Spain prays for victory
The shocking events of the FIFA World Cup 2010 continued as yesterdays game brought yet another shock for the football community with defending champions Italy being knocked out of the tournament in a game where they went down 3-2 against Slovakia.
Slovakian striker Robert Vittek scored twice in the match with his first goal being scored in the 25th minute of the game and thus giving his team a 1-0 lead as the first half of the game came to a close.
The second half of the game was much more intense as both teams picked up their game. However throughout the match Italy despite their two goals were always left chasing.
In the second half Vittek again scored in the 73rd minute and then Kamil Kopunek sealed the deal as he scored the 3rd goal for Slovakia in the 89th minute and bagged the match, showing Italy the exit sign.
Now with the last rounds of group games being completed today, this year’s FIFA World Cup has already witnessed some of the much favoured pre tournament favourites teams fall out unexpectedly in the first round.
Yesterday saw current World Champions Italy exit the competition and in doing so they made history alongside France, as the two nations became the first ever finalists from a previous World Cup to have exited the subsequent World Cup in first round.
Adding to this miserable defeat is something which Italy had never expected in their worst nightmares, the Italians finished bottom of their qualifying group for the first time ever in their football history and another surprising aspect was that they even failed to win a single game.
However this is not the first time that the Italians have been under a cloud of bad luck at the World cup.
In the 1974 World Cup after having lost the final in 1970, Italy was amongst the pre-tournament favourites for the World Cup that was played in West Germany.Italy in the opening game beat Haiti 3 goals to 1 and then drew 1-1 against Argentina.Their next and final group game was then against Poland, where the Polish managed a 2-2 draw and thus the Italians, due to a lower goal difference then Argentina who had won against Haiti, lost out on a place in the second round.
However 1966's defeat was something similar to what Italy went through yesterday. In the 1966 World Cup the Italians featuring the likes of Gianni Rivera and Giacinto Facchetti, started the tournament on a high note as they won 2-0 against Chile.
But then in a bad move by then coach Edmondo Fabbri, in the second match against the Soviet Union he dropped Rivera and this eventually led to the Italians losing 1-0, leaving them only one game against North Korea and a position in which they desperately had to win in order to qualify.
However in one of the greatest World Cup upsets of all time, the Koreans managed to score in the first half of the match and then with some great defence managed to hold on to their 1-0 lead which eventually gave them the win and left the Italian team to go home where fans showered them with rotten fruit upon arrival.
Coming back to 2010, Slovakia will now join Paraguay to reach the last 16 of the World Cup from Group F after their thoroughly deserved victory against Italy. For Italy the defeat meant that they finished at the bottom of their group having played 3 matches out of which they lost one and drew 2 and thus even ended below the minnows New Zealand.
In the other Group F match Paraguay managed a draw against the New Zealanders and thus topped the Group F.
In today’s Group H decider, Spain requiring a desperate victory will take on Chile. The Spaniards are in a must win situation to keep their hopes alive. They will also need to pray that provided they defeat Chile, Switzerland does not overcome their goal-difference edge if they win against Honduras. Also today, World Cup favourites Brazil will go up against Portugal in their final Group G however the five-time champions have already qualified for last 16.
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