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Italy 2 Czech Republic 0
22/06/2006: Goals from Marco Materazzi and Filippo Inzaghi gave Italy a 2-0 win against 10-man Czech Republic to put them into the last 16 of the World Cup.
The Italians withstood some early Czech pressure to go in front midway through the first half and their hopes of maintaining their lead was helped when Jan Polak saw red on the stroke of half-time.
The Czechs struggled to break down the Italy backline throughout and even more so with a man less after the break as Italy wrapped up the win late on thanks to Inzaghi.
The result means Italy top Group E, while the Czech Republic are out as Ghana secured a 2-1 victory over the USA to go through to the knockout stages in second place.
The Czech Republic started the brighter of the two sides with Pavel Nedved pulling the strings in the middle of the park. It was the Juventus playmaker's ball to Milan Baros which almost created an opening on nine minutes, but the Aston Villa hitman showed signs of his lack of match sharpness by taking it too wide and his eventual shot from a tight angle was saved by Gigi Buffon.
Nedved then had two long-range efforts saved by his Juve team-mate Buffon in the space of five minutes. However the shot-stopper could only parry the second shot on 16 minutes and he did well to get up and deny Marek Jankulovski from the follow-up.
The Italians took their time to get into the contest but gradually started showing signs that they could threaten around the 20-minute mark with some promising build up play.
Their positive play was immediately rewarded on 26 minutes when Francesco Totti played in a corner from the left which Materazzi managed to jump above everyone to power in to the net.
From then onwards both sides had plenty of the ball without really looking like adding to the scoreline as the Czechs in particular were struggling to find a killer touch to their neat passing build up play.
The Czechs chances of securing a victory were virtually dashed right on half-time when Polak, who had already picked up a booking earlier in the half, barged over Totti to earn himself a second yellow and a subsequent red card.
A promising start to the second half by the Italians almost earned them a second goal on 53 minutes when Totti fired in a curling shot from the edge of the area which Cech dived at full length to push round the post.
The Czechs cleared the resulting corner and went straight down the other end where Buffon was again on hand to deny Nedved a goal with a good stop.
The Czechs continued to probe for a goal without really carving open the Italian defence, while, at the other end, substitute, Inzaghi, making his 50th appearance for Italy, should have wrapped up the game on 68 minutes when an attempted Czech clearance fell kindly for him but his effort flashed wide of the far post.
The Czech Republic hit back two minutes later with a determined run by Jankulovski leading to him setting up Nedved whose powerful effort was punched clear by Buffon.
Italy appeared happy to run the clock down in the final 10 minutes but, moments after heading wide in front of an open goal, Inzaghi made amends to grab a killer second. Simone Perrotta's defence-splitting pass sent him clear on goal where he went on to take the ball round Cech before tapping it into an empty net.
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