De Rossi leads Italy past Georgia

By: Francesco | September 10th, 2008

(first, sorry for the lack of posts the last two days, we’ll be back on scheduled programming starting now)

Daniele De Rossi scored his first ever “doppietta” (brace) in an Azzurri shirt to give Italy the 3 points vs. Georgia. Italy now have 6 points for the first two games and have made an excellent start to World Cup Qualfying, despite their mediocre play. Next up for the Azzurri are games in October vs Bulgaria (away) and Montenegro (home). More about the Georgia game after the jump.

After the Azzurri’s 2-1 win over Cyprus on Saturday, where they suffered the whole match, Lippi’s men were looking to redeem themselves with a good performance vs. Georgia in Udine, who lost to Ireland 2-1 on Saturday. Georgia are managed by none other than Hector Cuper, who is very experienced when it comes to Italian football, and had 2 Italian based players on the squad- Kahka Kaladze of Milan, and 18 year old Levan Mchedlidze of Palermo (on loan from Empoli). Georgia also had a 17 year old on the pitch, Levan Kenia, dubbed the “Georgian Messi”. There were lots of Udinese players present for Italy (Di Natale, along with former players Dossena, Iaquinta, and De Sanctis) and that made the home crowd even more excited.

Lippi put out a 4-3-3 with some changes from the Cyprus game. Buffon in net, Zambrotta, Legrottaglie, Cannavaro, and Dossena in defense. Pirlo, De Rossi, and Aquilani in midfield, with Di Natale and Camoranesi supporting Toni. Italy started out strong and created many chances while Georgia sat back and bunkered in. Aquilani and De Rossi were running the midfield while up front Di Natale and Camoranesi were providing many crosses and nice plays. Nicola Legrottaglie (who put in a excellent performance) was calm and assured and put in great tackles. In the 16th minute Italy broke the deadlock. Daniele De Rossi, who is now officially our anchor in midfield, took the ball from 30 yards out, skipped past a Georgian defender, inched up a little more, and unleashed a laser beam that rifled into the net past the Georgian keeper. That was De Rossi’s 2nd goal vs. Georgia in his career.

After the goal however Italy seemed to cool down and Georgia was gaining more possession. The Georgians almost drew level on the counter attack, but 17 year old Kenia couldn’t finish from a few yards out. Pirlo wasn’t having the brightest of games and received a yellow card. At half-time he was subbed for Angelo Palombo.

After the break Georgia bunkered in again and Italy’s play really cooled down. Alessandro Del Piero came in for a tired Di Natale and made his 91st appearance for the Azzurri. Luca Toni was doing a lot of hard work up front but wasn’t getting the right service. Italy were keeping possession but losing it in the final third. Del Piero tried to cut in from the left and score like he always does but his shot was high. Aquilani had a chance after a nice pass from Toni but the keeper saved it. Luca Toni was subbed out for ex-Udinese hitman Vincenzo Iaquinta. Iaquinta had a good chance but his shot hit the side netting. With the clock winding down, it looked like it would finish 1-0. However De Rossi received a nice assist from Del Piero and dribbled into the box and finished low at the far post to put Italy ahead 2-0, his second goal of the night. That makes 3 goals for De Rossi vs. Georgia in his career.

Again it wasn’t a brilliant performance from the Azzurri, but the job was done and another 3 points were won. That was Lippi’s 27th consecutive Azzurri win (the last loss was vs Slovenia in October 2004), 3 away from the record held by Vittorio Pozzo. Italy started great to the group and next month take on Bulgaria in Sofia and then come home to take on Montenegro in Lecce.

First goal:

Second goal:

SCORERS: De Rossi al 16’ p.t. e al 45’ s.t.

ITALIA (4-3-3): Buffon; Zambrotta, Legrottaglie, Cannavaro, Dossena; Pirlo (dal 1’ s.t. Palombo), De Rossi, Aquilani; Camoranesi, Toni (dal 25’ s.t. Iaquinta), Di Natale (dall’11’ s.t. Del Piero). (De Sanctis, Barzagli, Cassetti, Gilardino). All. Lippi.

GEORGIA (4-3-3): Loria; Lobjanidze, Salukvadze, Kaladze, Eliava (Kvirkvelia dal 1’ s.t.); Monteshashvili (dal 24’ s.t. Odikadze), Khmaladze, Kobiashvili; Kenia, Mchedlidzde (dal 10’ s.t. Siradze), Iashvili. (Kvaskhvadze, Shashiashvili, Kvakhadze, Alekside). All.

datasport ratings:

Buffon 6
Cannavaro 6.5
Zambrotta 6
Legrottaglie 6
Dossena 6.5
Palombo 6.5
Camoranesi 6.5
De Rossi 7
Aquilani 6.5
Pirlo 5
Del Piero 6.5
Toni 5
Di Natale 6
Iaquinta 6.5