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Del Piero rescues Italy as World Cup dream reignited

June 13, 2002
Daily Soccer

OITA, Japan (AFP) - Substitute Alessandro Del Piero saved Italy's blushes here on Thursday as he netted a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Mexico which kept the three-time world champions in the World Cup.

Italy had been facing elimination in the opening phase for the first time since 1974 until another substitute, Vincenzo Montella, whipped over a right-wing cross which bounced up for Del Piero to nod past Mexican keeper Oscar Perez in the 85th minute.

The 'Azzurri' were helped by Ecuador's 1-0 victory over Croatia in Yokohama in the other Group G match - victory for the Croats would have consigned Italy to a flight back to Rome early Friday.

After their earlier 2-1 loss to Croatia the Italians had to go for a win rather than rely on Croatia failing to beat Ecuador - and even Mexico were not certain to go through despite winning their opening two matches.

In the event the one point saw Mexico win the group with seven points while Italy took second place with four.

"It's our destiny to be in the second round. And now we can look to our future," said Del Piero.

"There were a lot of things we didn't do well - but in the end everything turned out fine," he said.

Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni said that he felt his team had deserved to qualify./p
"I told them at half-time that I did not want us to lose after we had played like that in the first half," said 'Trap'.

"The team deserved to qualify on the basis of the first and the third game - in the second we were not brilliant but it was still good. We deserve to go through."

He revealed he wanted to bring on Del Piero earlier and said he was thankful that defender Alessandro Nesta was able to finish the game.

"That gave me the opportunity for a third change - another option."

Against Croatia the Azzurri had two goals disallowed in controversial circumstances and amazingly, the same thing happened again with two more chalked off for offside, albeit correctly.

But there was more controversy in the final minutes here as both sides stood off one another in the knowledge they were headed for the last 16.

That didn't bother Mexican coach Javier Aguirre, who, despite failing to hang on for the victory, was happy to be through.

"That was the main thing for us. We're through and it doesn't matter who we face next," he said.

The Mexicans can look forward to playing whichever side finishes second in Group D out of South Korea, Portugal or the United States while Italy will face the winner of that group.

Mexico soaked up huge amounts of typically patient Italian pressure before stunning their rivals by going into the lead with a Jared Borgetti goal on 34 minutes, the gangling striker flicking a header past Gianluigi Buffon from Cuauhtemoc Blanco's centre for his second goal of the tournament.

But the goal was only part of the drama as Italy, just as in the loss to Croatia, had their two offside efforts ruled out as when Filippo Inzaghi had the ball in the net after 13 minutes.

Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni withdrew Inzaghi ten minutes after the break and sent on Vincenzo Montella after 55 minutes and also swiftly hauled off Christian Panucci for Francesco Coco.

Montella promptly got himself booked - but then lobbed the ball into the back of the net on 64 minutes but to Italian consternation a linesman's flag again denied the Azzurri.

But Trapattoni then threw on his last card in Juventus golden boy Del Piero for Francesco Totti with 13 minutes remaining and he saved the day with his late contribution.

Trapattoni had earlier gambled on defender Alessandro Nesta at the Big Eye Stadium.

Nesta, who suffered a badly bruised foot against the Croatians, was passed fit to play less than an hour before kick-off.

Francesco Totti missed a virtual open goal in the first half Mexican keeper Oscar Perez raced out before the latter was in action again, fielding a Vieri volley.

Gradually, Mexico began to settle down, stringing intricate passes together by the half dozen and Borgetti's goal left Italy with much work to do after the break.

But the introduction of Del Piero finally paid handsome dividends.
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