Italy Crash Out Of The World Cup

Slovakia pulled off the upset of the tournament as they beat Italy 3-2 to send the defending champions out of the World Cup.

The Italians had been held to two draws in their opening matches and needed a win to guarantee there place in the last sixteen.

And while the Italians have been below par in the tournament so far they were the heavy favourites going into the match as Slovakia seemed unlikely contenders to progress to the knockout phase.

But once again it was another poor performance from the defending champions while Slovakia played some really inspired football.

Italy almost took the lead within the opening minute when a volley by Di Natale almost caught out goalkeeper Jan Mucha.

And second chance came not long after as Vincenzo sent the ball wide before Slovakia had their first chance when Hamsik mis-kicked a volley.

And Italy thought they had taken the lead after just ten minutes when Iaquinta found the back of the net, but the referee had already blown for a foul and the goal was disallowed.

If Slovakia had any hopes of progressing out of the group then nothing less than a win was going to do and in the twenty fifth minute they really put the cat amongst the pigeons.

A poor pass from De Rossi was intercepted by Kucka which he fed through to Vittek on the edge of the box. And with a low shot he beat Italian keeper Marchetti and Slovakia were ahead.

Italy did try to hit back as Iaquinta sent a shot wide while Montolivo then fired a shot a shot over the crossbar.

It so easily could have been 2-0 for Slovakia when Strba had a 30 yard strike that had Marchetti diving to save.

After half time Lippi brought on Maggio and Quagliarella for Criscito and Gattuso as he tried to inject some life into his side.

And just ten minutes into the second half Lippi also introduced Andrea Pirlo, sidelined in the first two matches because of injury, and Italy was now playing with four men upfront.

Despite the changes things got even worse of Italy as they fell 2-0 behind after seventy three minutes when Vittek struck again.

It was only when they were staring defeat in the face did Italy finally come alive and they started to play with more pace and urgency.

With just nine minutes to go Di Natale kicked off the Italian comeback as he slid the ball into the net from a Muncha pass.

But there was a disagreement in the goal as Quagliarella found himself tussling with Muncha as they both tried to retrieve the ball.

And Italy thought they had the equaliser when Quagilarella scored a much needed second goal, but it was disallowed as the offside flag had been raised.

Some poor defending from Italy allowed Slovakia, quite against the run of play, went on the break and Marchetti, who had only just come on the field, got a third goal.

And while Quagliarella pulled another goal back two minutes into injury time they couldn’t find that third goal and the defence of their World Cup title was over.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw