Ukraine v Azzurri: What, Me Worry?

By: Martha | September 12th, 2007

Gooooooooaaaaaal! Well, that was a hell of a lot more exciting than the France game. Jesus. So, do we call Dondoni a genius now because he started Antonio Di Natale and the guy scored two goals? Or is he just lucky the team saved his job for another day?

Overall, it was probably a deserved win, if only because Italy did more with their chances and, for the most part, defended awfully well. Ukraine were no pushovers, though, and they played with truly astounding confidence while attacking ferociously, either over the top or with quick counters. And Andriy Shevchenko hit the bar so hard with a third-minute free kick that it’s a miracle the thing didn’t break. Seriously — the ball had hit the bar and rebounded back into play before Buffon had even landed from his dive. It was insane.

When they could clear their half (not always the easiest of tasks), Italy found loads of space on the Ukraine flanks, and looked far more threatening than they had against France. Vincenzo Iaquinta had several early chances on the edge of the box, and Andrea Pirlo was working his usual magic, eventually setting up Di Natale’s first goal with a perfectly weighted pass, dropping the ball right on the Udine man.

In the second half, Italy sat in a bit at first while Ukraine had a lot of the possession, which meant Shevchenko continued to look lethal (particularly when Andrea Barzagli gave him the ball right outside the area only to be bailed out by Buffon, who had a great game). Eventually, Sheva got the goal he deserved, pouncing on the ball in the box after his team screwed up a free kick. Shortly thereafter, though, with Ukraine pressing, a great ball from Massimo Ambrosini set Di Natale free and, one-on-one with the keeper, he finished convincingly to put the game away.

Oh and, in case you missed it, Scotland beat France to go top with 21 points, one ahead of Italy and two clear of France. Woo hoo, second place! Ahem. There’s everything still to play for, as they say, and the Italy camp will be very pleased to have earned themselves a month of relative peace going into a month off before the next set of qualifiers.