June 27, 1998
CNN/SI

ITALY 1, NORWAY 0

Forward Christian Vieri scored in the 18th minute as Italy moved through to the quarterfinals for the third straight World Cup with a 1-0 victory over Norway in Marseille, France in the first match of the second round.

Midfielder Luigi Di Biagio served Vieri for his tournament-leading fifth goal with a long pass from Italy's own half of the field on the right flank. Vieri, in a full sprint, tapped the ball ahead with his left foot before outracing defender Dan Eggen to finish with a well placed right-footed shot to the left post.

"This was quite a difficult match and what's more it was hot," said Vieri. "Of course, it's very important to qualify. We played well after the goal I scored. I hope I'll have more chances to score. The Norwegians had a few opportunities but our defenders were excellent."

"We've won and that's the main thing, even if I didn't really get into the game," explained Roberto Baggio, who did not enter the match. "I don't know if I'll be playing in the next match. Alessandro Del Piero was unfortunate this afternoon, but he'll have other opportunities to show that he's an excellent player."

Del Piero, who missed on a number of chances, was flattered by his teammate's remarks.

"Regarding Roberto Baggio's comments about my performance, that doesn't surprise me as he is a very valuable teammate and I appreciate him very much," responded Del Piero. "I made two mistakes, but it wasn't easy playing the Norwegian defense line. It's true that, up to now, it's Christian Vieri's World Cup; the fact that he scored the winning goal makes it easier to forget my mistake. Despite everything, I think I played a good match."

Three-time champion Italy is looking for its first World Cup title since 1982 in Spain. With the win the Italians secured a spot in the quarterfinals for the fourth time in the last five tournaments and handed Norway its first international loss in 15 months.

"First of all, I have to congratulate Italy for their victory," said Norway coach Egil Olsen, who was on the bench for the last time. "Of course, I am disappointed for several reasons. We didn't play up to our potential, and I think that if we had done that, we would have beaten Italy. I'm in fact not very impressed with Italy either, so it was more because we didn't play well that we lost the match.

"It's difficult to say whether the hot conditions today affected the performance of our team, but I think the heat affected the Italian team, too, because they looked more tired than us in the last minutes of the game."

Italy had more and better scoring chances throughout the match, but Norway almost equalized with its best opportunity in the 71st minute when Tore Andre Flo's header was prevented from crossing the goal line by veteran goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca. Flo was unmarked when Erik Mykland crossed from the right side.

Dino Baggio headed a quality finish in the 37th minute just to be stopped by goalkeeper Frode Grodas right on the line. Four minutes later, Alessandro Del Piero escaped on a breakaway but was unable to convert a good scoring chance.

Norwegian Henning Berg missed a possible tying goal two minutes into stoppage time of the first half when he directed the ball wide of the left post off a corner kick.

Midfielder Demetrio Albertini split the defense in the 66th minute with a great pass on the left to Del Piero, who missed the far post by inches.

Italy defeated Norway for the third time in as many World Cup meetings, although this was the first time in the knockout stage. Italy beat Norway, 1-0, four years ago in the "Group of Death" in USA '94 and 2-1 here in France 60 years ago. All-time, Italy holds a 7-2-2 record against Norway, with 16 goals scored and 10 allowed.

Italy had 15 shots to Norway's eight, although it had just two corner kicks to seven by Norway. Nine of the 15 shots were quality attempts for Italy, while Norway had five.

Germany referee Bernd Heynemann issued yellow cards to Haavard Flo, Mykland and Kjetl Rekdal of Norway, and Francesco Moriero, Di Biagio and captain Paolo Maldini of Italy.

Italy does not play again until Friday in Saint-Denis, where it meets the winner of Sunday's France-Paraguay game.

"If we had qualified for the quarterfinals, France would have been a much more difficult opponent than Italy," Olsen observed. "I think that France (is) one of the World Cup favorites. I wasn't very impressed by Brazil, but at this level there isn't much difference between the teams. If France qualifies for the quarterfinals, I would be very surprised if the Italians succeeded in beating them."
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