Italy 1 Croatia 2
Vieri 55; Olic 73, Rapaic 76

The first half of this game was yawn, yawn, yawn (although the anthems were stirring) - but the second half was completely wonderful!!! Firstly, Vieri scored a seemingly excellent headed goal, which was ruled out by off-side (which it most definitely wasn't). Vieri got booked. Just a little later though, he scored a proper goal and the game seemed all over. The Croats had been better than in their last game, but showed not much in the way of prospects of scoring. Wheeee! Two priceless goals, one after the other to totally stun the Italians. Olic, the scorer of the first, took his shirt off in celebration and couldn't get it back on, which had us all sillily giggling. The Itis brought on Pips (at last!) and took off the Doughnut (Doni: is he an oddment or what?). The Azzurri went all out for goal. Totti had a wonderful free-kick come off both posts and Pips scored yet another seemingly good goal, which was disallowed for alleged shirt pulling! Oh, oops Italia - back to the drawing board!!

The fabulous thing about this world cup, is that everything is so very unpredictable! Will the Chinese beat Brazil???

Teams

Italy: Buffon, Panucci, Nesta (Materazzi 23), Cannavaro, Maldini, Zambrotta, Zanetti, Tommasi, Doni (Inzaghi 79), Totti, Vieri.

Booked: Vieri.

Croatia: Pletikosa, Robert Kovac, Simunic, Saric, Jarni, Tomas, Rapaic (Simic 79), Niko Kovac, Soldo (Vranjes 62), Vugrinec (Olic 57), Boksic.

Booked: Robert Kovac.

Attendance: 36,472.

Referee: Graham Poll (England).

[ Home ][ Italy ][ Croatia ]