The reigning champions were to face their first test in the 2010 World Cup campaign to retain the title for another four years; a feat which has only been achieved twice previously: by Italy themselves back in 1938, and Brazil in 1962. Their first hurdle was a Group F match against Paraguay, who were set to give the Italians some stiff competition. Paraguay had beaten both Brazil and Argentina in the qualification campaign, and had performed considerably well in the warm-up matches for the tournament.
The Azzurri have only eight players from their 2006 World Cup winning team, and have been hit by a wave of injuries before the tournament. The biggest miss in this match was their key playmaker Andrea Pirlo, who had been ruled out at least for the first two group games. Coach Marcello Lippi had kept him in the squad to give him a chance to recover in time for the knockout stage.
There was a bigger problem in the Italian camp; they were missing a real “No. 10” player in the squad, who could link up between the midfield and the attackers, and could hold the ball in the attacking third. On the contrary, Paraguay had very decent strikers in Roque Santa Cruz and Oscar Cardozo, surprisingly both of whom started the match on the bench, making way for Lucas Barrios and Nelson Valdez.
Italy had started the match on front foot, but were finding it difficult to put the ball behind the Paraguayan defence line; their passing in front of them, however, was quite pleasing. With Italy failing to create any clear chances, Paraguay started to grow in confidence and shocked the defending champions when they took the lead just before the half time from a dead ball situation. Italy’s aging defence had failed in their first real test of the match when their captain Fabio Cannavaro could not meet the flighted ball and Antolin Alcaraz easily put the ball in back of the net.
Italy was met with more bad news in the halftime break, when arguably the best goalkeeper in the tournament, Gianluigi Buffon, was ruled out for the remaining match because of a back problem and replaced by Federico Marchetti. The new keeper had nothing much to do in the second half apart from the early shots by Enrique Vera, as the Italians started the second half very well, creating more and better chances.
Mauro Camoranesi was introduced in the Italian side at the hour mark to change the formation to a more attacking one, which paid off soon in one of their own dead ball situations. Veteran Paraguayan goalkeeper Justo Villar came out of his lines to punch away the corner kick but failed horribly to give Daniele De Rossi an open goal to put the ball in.
Both coaches played their cards to win the match by introducing the Seria A top goal-scorer Antonio Di Natale in place of Alberto Gilardino, while both Santa Cruz and Cardozo replaced Barrios and Valdez for Paraguay. Both teams were able to carve out chances late in the match, but the match ended in draw with a goal apiece.
This match was being considered the top spot decider but neither team could take the advantage. Italy face the group minnows New Zealand next in a match they definitely need to win to top the group ahead of Paraguay who will face Slovakia. Paraguay were decent all around and can do just enough to progress through this group, but for the Italians it is not about qualifying for the second round, but to make a real claim on repeating the feat of four years ago. They badly need to find a combination in the offensive third of the pitch and probably need to play Antonio Di Natale from start of every match.
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