Mexico 1 Italy 1
Borguetti 34; Del Piero 85

Well, Italy made it hard for themselves!!! Two more disputed off-side goals (one from Pips; ok - and one from Montella; not so ok) must've only served to suggest to Italy that this was not going to be their year, especially after Borguetti had put the Mexicans in front, with his 34th minute goal which seemed to take an eternity to hit the back of the net. Fabio didn't help by getting himself booked after only a couple minutes, meaning that he had to be on his best behaviour for nigh on the entire match. He played a great game though, making last minute tackles that saved the Azzuri on more than one occasion. Totti had a strange game. He (along with Panucci) was booked for an obvious dive and he not only missed a couple sitters, but also provided some abysmal corners. However, they survived and made it certain when Del Piero came on and made some amends for his awful Euro 2000 misses, by equalising.

A lot of credit should be given to Mexico, as they played a superb game (and we had a bunny hop from Blanco). The last few minutes were played out in a farcical way. Both teams knew the result of the other game, knew they were both through - and just passed the ball around! As it happened, Italy would've gone through even with a loss. They would've gone through even if they'd lost 2-0!!

(Didn't Italy have a disastrous start to the 1982 campaign?)

Teams

Mexico: Perez, Marquez, Vidrio, Carmona, Morales (Garcia 76), Arellano, Johan Rodriguez (Caballero 75), Luna, Torrado, Blanco, Borguetti (Palencia 80).

Booked: Arellano, Perez.

Italy: Buffon, Panucci (Coco 63), Cannavaro, Nesta, Maldini, Inzaghi (Montella 56), Zambrotta, Zanetti, Tomi, Totti (Del Piero 78), Vieri.

Booked: Cannavaro, Panucci, Totti, Zambrotta, Montella.

Attendance: 39,291

Referee: Carlos Simon (Brazil).

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