Italy is alive ’n kicking; Del Piero on song

Italy is alive ’n kicking; Del Piero on song
Agence France Presse

Milan, March 25: The doubts that have assailed Italian football since all of their club sides failed to reach the quarter-finals of either European competition were swept aside yesterday by the 2-0 victory over Romania that put the National side in sight of the 2002 World Cup finals.

Giovanni Trapattoni’s side had two goals from Juventus striker Filippo Inzaghi to thank for victory in the group eight European zone qualifier in Bucharest but there was much more than that to celebrate with Alessandro del Piero looking the part again after long-standing injury problems.

‘Trap’ was quick to point out that reports of the demiseof the ‘Piu Bello Campianato del Mondo’ (world’s best domestic league) were premature.“There are so many foreigners in our championship,” said Trapattoni, who believes the league’s foreign legion must take equal responsibility for club failures.

“However, Italian football is still alive and well.”

But the wily coach was keen to dismiss suggestions that qualification for the tournament to be co-staged by Japan and South Korea was assured.Asked about his pre-match comments that he wanted his team to perform harmoniously he wanted to “hear violins” the old maestro said: “leave it out. We will talk about that tomorrow at trieste (where Italy will host Lithuania in another World Cup qualifier on Wednesday).”

Bearing in mind that his leading soloist Francesco Totti had to be left behind in Rome with illness and that Italy had a legitimate goal by Lazio’s Giuseppe Pancaro disallowed before Inzaghi found the net it was a fine performance.England, Poland and Sweden score narrow wins: ENGLAND kick-started their World Cup campaign on Saturday when they came from behind to beat Finland 2-1 at Anfield and record their first win in European qualifying group IX, in London.

In their first competitive match under Swedish coach Sven Goran Eriksson, England won with goals from Michael Owen (43) and skipper David Beckham (50) after Aki Rihilahti (26) had given Finland the lead with a header that took a deflection off Gary Neville on the way in.

A round-up of other early action from some of the 22 World Cup qualifiers being played around the continent on Saturday:

Group One: Top two Russia and Slovenia drew 1-1 in Moscow to leave Russia top of the standings with seven points and Slovenia second on six, although that situation could well change later with Yugoslavia (3 points) meeting Switzerland (4 points) in Belgrade. Dmitry Khlestov put the Russians ahead after only eight minutes while Aleksander Knavs equalised for Slovenia 16 minutes later.

Group Three: The Czech Republic took a firm grip at the head of the group with their 1-0 win over Northern Ireland thanks to a 12th-minute goal from skipper Pavel Nedved. Bulgaria came from behind to beat Iceland 2-1 to move into second place on seven points, three behind the Czechs. Denmark should move back into second place when they play Malta later.

Group Four: An unimpressive Sweden moved into first place, for a few hours at least, with a 1-0 win over Macedonia in Gothenburg. Anders Svensson scored the only goal after 43 minutes. In earlier action there were more sendings off than goals when bottom two Azerbaijan and Moldova drew 0-0 in Baku. Moldova had two players sent off, Azerbaijan one. Turkey were playing Slovakia later.

Group Five: Poland won a thrilling match 3-2 over Norway in Oslo with Nigerian-born striker Emmanuel Olisadebe scoring twice to lead Poland to victory. He put them 2-0 up before John Carew and Ole Gunnar Solkjaer pulled goals back for Norway. Substitute Bartosz Karwan scored the winner for Poland 10 minutes from the end. They stretched their lead at the top to four points although there were two later matches between Ukraine and Belarus and Armenia and Wales.

Group Six: Scotland blew a 2-0 lead against Belgium who came back to draw 2-2 at Hampden Park with a goal in the dying seconds from substitute Daniel van Buyten. As a result, Belgium stay top on goal difference from Scotland and both have eight points from four matches. Croatia were meeting Latvia later in the same group.