Azzurrini Draw With Greece; Drop Their First Points
By: Martha | October 17th, 2007
Despite reportedly dominating the last hour and scoring a couple of fantastic goals, the Azzurrini only managed a draw with Greece last night, giving up an 89th minute penalty which nullified more eye-catching work by Italy’s young strike force.
The Azzurrini had some early chances by failed to capitalize, and fell behind when a header by Antonis Petropoulos slipped between Andrea Consigli and the defender on his post, leaving them looking at each other in confusion. (It wasn’t a bad header, but Consigli was afraid to dive for fear he’d smash into the defender’s raised foot, which wasn’t particularly reassuring.) Last weekend’s goal hero Roberto Acquafresca had a couple good chances to equalize and had a goal ruled out for offside, but it wasn’t until Guiseppe Rossi — who has always thought he could score from anywhere and is actually right at the moment — pulled out a ridiculous bit of magic* just after the hour mark and drew Italy level. He received the ball with his back to goal and made a great turn, driving down the left and unleashing a shot (and falling down) the moment he caught sight of goal, slipping the ball just inside the post. The keeper maybe should have done better, but he can be forgiven for not imagining Rossi was going to shoot.
The Azzurri pulled ahead gorgeously with just 10 minutes to go thanks to Daniele Dessena, who finished off a wonderfully worked move with only the keeper to beat. (I have some issues with his idiotic Get Smart!-style celebration, but this is probably neither the time nor place for that discussion.) Sadly, it went all to hell when Grigorios Makos, who had been a constant threat in the second half, was brought down in the box by Domenico Criscito and Konstantinos Mitroglou put the penalty away to secure a point for the Greeks.
Despite losing their perfect record, Italy are still top of Group 1 with 13 points from five games, three clear of second-place Greece.
*The linked video is infuriating because it is edited to start with every goal celebration, but the goals themselves are there in replay if you’re patient, I promise.
Category: Serie A
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