Italy took a giant step towards next summer's World Cup finals after coming away from Georgia with a narrow victory on Saturday. The first half was fairly even with Italy maybe just shading it. Alessandro Del Piero and Francesco Totti were both denied by the Georgian goalkeeper Irakli Zoidze. Temuri Ketsbaia had Georgia's best chance of the first half but he couldn't finish it. Kakhi Kaladze, despite the drama surrounding the kidnapping of his brother this week, was Georgia's best player at the back but up front the home side just couldn't get going. The visitors eventually grabbed the lead on the stroke of half-time when Gianluca Zambrotta's cross from the right was headed home at the near post by Marco Delvecchio.

Delvecchio heads in at the near post

It was poor marking from the Georgian defence and Valeri Abramidze on his debut must take full responsibilty for Delvecchio's goal. The Georgians pushed forward after the break in an attempt to get back into the game, with Gianluigi Buffon pulling off a magnificent save from Levan Kobiashvili while Mikheil Kavelashvili produced a sublime piece of skill to get past Alessandro Nesta but he shot just wide. But the Italians doubled their lead midway through the second half when Totti pounced onto a through ball from Roma team-mate Damiano Tomassi. Totti held off the challenge from Levan Silagadze and with Zoidze rushing out of the box to meet him, Totti calmly knocked the ball past the onrushing goalkeeper took a touch and scored into the unguarded net. Georgia refused to give up and pulled one back ten minutes from time through substitute Georgi Gakhokidze, who received a pass from Shota Arveladze, controlled the ball on his chest and despite being at a tight angle managed to poke the ball past Buffon. It was Gakhokidze's second goal for the national side but despite constant Georgian pressure Italy held firm for their fifth win of the qualifying campaign, which kept them seven points clear of second-place Romania.

Georgia: Zoidze, Silagadze, Abramidze, Rekhviashvili, Khizanishvili (Gakhokidze 80), Kaladze, Nemsadze (S. Arveladze 34), Kavelashvili, Ketsbaia, Kobiashvili, Menteshashvili (A Arveldze 62)

Italy: Buffon, Pancaro, Maldini, Tacchinardi, Cannavaro, Nesta (Materrazzi 74), Zambrotta, Tommasi, Delvecchio (Montella 80), Totti, Del Piero (Di Livio 59)

Booked: Tacchinardi (Italy), Gakhokidze (Georgia)

Attendance: 32,000

Referee: Eduardo Iturralde (Spain)