Italy 2-1 Sweden
June 19, 2000
SportsServer
By Gideon Long
EINDHOVEN, Netherlands -
A fine goal in the 88th minute from Alessandro Del Piero earned Italy a
2-1 win in its final Euro 2000 group B match Monday.
The victory meant Italy ended
the group stage with three wins in three games, ahead of Turkey, which
beat Belgium 2-0 in Brussels.
Sweden slithered out of the
competition with just one point and two goals to its credit.
The Italians will play the
runner-up of group A - either England, Romania or Germany - in the quarterfinals.
Celtic's Henrik Larsson gave
the Swedes hope of a victory with an excellent 77th minute equalizer after
Luigi Di Biagio had put Italy ahead six minutes before halftime.
But Del Piero struck a sweet,
late winner, beating keeper Magnus Hedman from 20 meters (65 feet).
Sweden needed a comfortable
win to stand any chance of joining the Italians in the last eight. Although
the Swedes besieged the goal in the closing minutes they failed to score
again.
Italy had qualified as group
winners before the match in Eindhoven's Philips Stadium and could have
afforded to lose.
The Swedes understandably
attacked from the opening whistle against an Italian outfit prepared to
sit back and play the waiting game that had served them so well in their
opening victories over Turkey and Belgium.
Celtic's Johan Mjallby almost
put the Swedes in front with a header from the first of 11 Swedish corners
before the half but Angelo Di Livio cleared the ball off his goalline with
his keeper Francesco Toldo stranded.
Four minutes later Arsenal's
Fredrik Ljungberg bundled the ball past rightback Paolo Negro in the penalty
area but scooped his shot wide of Toldo's right hand post.
Magnus Svensson and Joachim
Bjorklund also missed chances within the space of a couple of minutes midway
through the half while the Italians were restricted to just two strikes
from Vincenzo Montella.
The little AS Roma striker
squandered the first by hitting his close range shot straight at Hedman
after a mazy run down the right and lobbed the second over the goalkeeper
onto the roof of the Swedish net.
But eight minutes later Italy
took the lead.
Del Piero swung his side's
first corner of the match toward the front post and Di Biagio planted a
firm header into the keeper's top right hand corner for his second international
goal.
The Swedes continued to press
after the break but their robust defending and neat midfield exchanges
initially failed to reap them few dividends.
But on 77 minutes substitute
Kennet Andersson played the ball through a flat Italian back three and
Larsson, playing his 50th match for Sweden, took the ball on, rounded Toldo
and stroked the ball into the empty net.
The only other sour note
for the Italians was an injury to captain Paolo Maldini, one of only a
handful of first team players in Dino Zoff's side.
The AC Milan leftback, winning
his 108th cap, picked up an injury to his left knee while tackling Larsson
in the 30th minute. He limped out of the game before the interval to be
replaced by Lazio's Alessandro Nesta.
Scorers:
Italy - Luigi Di Biagio 39,
Alessandro Del Piero 88
Sweden - Henrik Larsson
77
Halftime: 1-0
Italy: 12-Francesco Toldo;
2-Ciro Ferrara, 3-Paolo Maldini (captain, 13-Alessandro Nesta 42), 6-Paolo
Negro, 15-Mark Iuliano (5-Fabio Cannavaro 46); 7-Angelo Di Livio (18-Stefano
Fiore 64), 16-Massimo Ambrosini, 14-Luigi Di Biagio, 11-Gianluca Pessotto;
19-Vincenzo Montella, 10-Alessandro Del Piero
Sweden: 1-Magnus Hedman;
3-Patrik Andersson (captain), 4-Joachim Bjorklund, 8-Tomas Gustafsson (19-Kennet
Andersson 75), 14-Olof Mellberg; 7-Hakan Mild, 9-Fredrik Ljungberg, 17-Johan
Mjallby (15-Daniel Andersson 56); 18-Yksel Osmanovski, 20-Henrik Larsson
13-Magnus Svensson (11-Niclas Alexandersson 51).
Referee: Vitor Manuel Melo
Pereira (Portugal)
.
