ITA: Pierluigi Casiraghi (5, 52).

RUS: Ilya Tsymbalar (21).

ITA: Peruzzi 5.5; Mussi 6, Costacurta 6, Apolloni 6, Maldini 6.5; Di Livio 5.5 (Fuser, 62), Di Mateo 5.5, Albertini 5, Del Piero 4 (Donadoni, 46 - 6); CASIRAGHI 7, Zola 6.5.

RUS: Cherchesov 5; Tetradze 6, Bushmanov 5.5 (Yanovskiy, 46 - 3.5), Onopko 4, Kovtun 4; Karpine 5.5 (Kiriakov, 63), Kanchelskis 5.5, Mostovoi 5.5, Tsymbalar 5.5 (Dobrovolskiy, 71); Kolyvanov 6, Radimov 5.

REFEREE: Leslie Mottram (Scotland).

AUDIENCE: 35.120, Anfield, Liverpool.

YELLOW CARDS: Albertini, Donadoni (Italy); Onopko, Kolyvanov, Kovtun (Russia).

RED CARDS: NONE.

Despite all the forecasts about Group C, it seems to be pretty closed already after the first games, as we have there two winning and two losing teams. The game of yesterday between Italy and Russia brought us 3 goals, for the first time in EC'96, and a temporary Best Scorer. Russia showed some pieces of marvellous soccer, but this was for a short period of time, the second part of the 1st half. Good news for Israel which meets Russia in the preliminaries for WC'98.

Arrigo Sacchi got a lot of killing critics, also from my side, after leaving Roberto Baggio, Gianlucca Vialli and Giuseppe Signori outside the tournament; when he started yesterday's game also without Fabrizio Ravanelli, I moaned in anger. Nevertheless, Italy was steady in the defence, Peruzzi had nearly nothing to do at all, and the attackers, Zola and especially Casiraghi, were fantastic; Mussi and Maldini joined the attacks at their wings, and Di Livio, altogether with Di Mateo, were solid too. Sacchi knew to substitute the awful Del Piero with Donadoni, and Italy went greatly out of the temporary crisis it'd been in after the 1st half. On the other hand, Oleg Romantsev made several strange moves, amongst them the substitution of Bushmanov with Yanovskiy who sucked immensely and allowed Zola to flourish, and also putting Onopko into the sweeping position. At the end - 2:1 to Italy.

The strangest move of Romantsev was even before the game, when he read the line-up. Stanislav Cherchesov, a permanent substitute of the famous Rinat Dassayev in Spartak Moscow, was chosen before Dmitriy Kharine to be in the net. Romantsev supposed an experience would be a proper replacement for a talent; however, it hit him back after just 5 minutes of play. Onopko passed the ball back to Cherchesov, and the latter shot it away dreadfully, straight into Di Livio who stood 40 meters from the net. Di Livio passed the ball to Casiraghi, and the latter turned around and aimed an incredible ball from 18 meters to the right low corner of Russia. Cherchesov stayed stuck. 1:0 to Italy, the quickest goal of this Championship by now.

Russia shot its first ball through Kolyvanov (13), too badly aimed. After a minute, Kolyvanov tried again, much better but still out. On the other hand, a ball badly cleared by Onopko enabled Casiraghi to shoot a volley kick from 18 meters, wide.

Italy was better, but the first serious Russian attack found the net of Peruzzi. Karpine's shot was blocked, and the ball deflected to Tsymbalar. The offside trap of the Italians did not work properly for the only time this game - Costacurta and Apolloni rushed forward too late, Tsymbalar rushed into the box and stood against Peruzzi. The keeper closed his far corner, but the defender shot into the near one. 1:1.

From now until the break, it was Russia on the pitch. Tsymbalar was fabulous, and Onopko flourished in the midline. Mostovoi and Kolyvanov were worth mentioning, and Kanchelskis celebrated at the right wing, humiliating the best defender in the world, Paolo Maldini, time and again. However, no serious threat to the net of Peruzzi was created. The free kicks of Mostovoi (33) and Kolyvanov (38) went high, and Kanchelskis shot it away after a great dribble (42). Italy was counterattacking sometimes, and it resulted in the flying header of Zola which missed the frame (23), and in two missed opportunities of Del Piero (29, 44).

Italy started the 2nd half stormily, exactly as it started the game. A great double pass of Mussi and Casiraghi found the latter's heel shooting the ball away (46), a wonderful effort. A free kick of Albertini (49) found Cherchesov badly prepared, but nobody was there to put the rebound in, just a corner. But after another 3 minutes, it was in; the goal scored here reminded me of the 2nd goal of Dumitrescu vs Argentina in WC'94, the goal which entered the soccer classics. Tsymbalar lost the ball to Mussi, it went then to Di Mateo, and the latter found Zola near the box. Zola one-touched it to Casiraghi, who shot from 9 meters without stopping. 2:1.

Here started the ping-pong of dangerous situations near both goals, with a certain advantage to Italy. 60: Mostovoi used the deflection from Costacurta to shoot a terrific volley from 22 meters, which passed centimeters near the left post of flying Peruzzi; had it gone into the frame, it would've been "The Goal Of The Tournament" with no contenders. 64: Kovtun managed to block the fresh Fuser. 66: a wonderful dribbling effort of Kolyvanov found the skies at the end. 69: Onopko lost the ball to Zola who rushed into the box and shot a ball parried superbly by Cherchesov. 70: a great back scissors kick by Fuser found the keeper well-placed. 72: a free kick of Zola was high.

80 minutes have passed, and Fabrizio Ravanelli entered the game, as Casiraghi went out to get the applauses. Ravanelli could've scored twice, but wasn't hot and sharp enough; Cherchesov (80) and Tetradze (90) prevented him from doing so. Cherchesov took the ball of Fuser (84), and Peruzzi managed to fist away the ball of Radimov (82). The last Russian chance was this of Igor Dobrovolskiy (90) who shot too high.

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