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Italy 3 Ukraine 0
01/07/2006: A Gianluca Zambrotta strike and a Luca Toni brace gave Italy a comfortable 3-0 win against Ukraine to send them into the World Cup semi-finals.
The Italians never looked back after taking an early lead in the game, while Ukraine were turgid in the first half. They improved after the half-time interval, going close on several occasions, but Toni pounced to add a second for Italy just before the hour mark to ease their nerves before he wrapped up the game 10 minutes later.
The result means Marcello Lippi's men will now face the daunting task of trying to defeat hosts Germany for a place in the final when the two sides meet in Dortmund on Tuesday.
Italy were handed a dream start when they took the lead after only six minutes of the game. Francesco Totti played the ball to Zambrotta and the full-back went on to fire a left-foot shot from outside the area which somehow beat Olexandr Shovkovskiy inside his left-hand post.
It was a disappointing goal for Ukraine to concede and it changed the whole dynamics of the game as Italy were pleased to sit back in numbers and use their excellent defensive abilities to keep their opponents out.
As a result the Ukraine's passing went completely awry and they lacked the ideas and creativity to break down Italy in the opening 45 minutes.
Their best chance came courtesy of a long-range effort from Anatoli Tymaschuck on 33 minutes which flashed wide of Gianluigi Buffon's far post.
Ukraine started the second half proceedings with more purpose about their game and they almost got on level terms within five minutes of the re-start. A corner kick into the area was headed goalwards by Andriy Gusin and Buffon dived at full stretch to push the ball out for corner off his right-hand post.
On 58 minutes Ukraine came forward again and missed an even better opportunity to equalise when Oleg Gusev's close range shot was well blocked by Buffon before Zambrotta made a fantastic goalline clearance to deny Maxim Kalinichenko's follow-up strike.
Ukraine were instantly made to pay for that spurned chance when Italy went up the other end a minute later to grab a decisive second goal. Totti played a great cross in from the left wing and Toni got in front of his marker to send a stooping header into the net from close range.
Ukraine still had a chance to get back into the contest on 62 minutes when Kalinichenko got up above the Italian defence to power a header off the crossbar from an inswinging free-kick.
That was their last real opportunity and, when Zambrotta bustled his way into the penalty area before teeing up Toni to tap-in his second on 69 minutes, the game was over as a contest.
Pre match nonsense
If you had been living on Mars for the last three weeks and suddenly returned you would probably be rather surprised. Not only have fast starters Spain fallen by the World Cup wayside but dark horse Ukraine have battled their way into a quarter-final showdown with the Italian Stallions.
Friday's quarter-final will see the World Cup debutants against the three times winners, but the eastern European team have made it clear they are not in Germany to make up the numbers.
So let's look at previous form. The two have met on three previous occasions. The Italians are unbeaten having won twice and drawn once.
However, the Ukrainians will want to beat the achievements of their Soviet forebears who reached the quarters in the 1982 competition.
Since a shaky start losing 4-0 to the Spanish, Ukraine has grown in confidence, and despite their Round of 16 game against Switzerland being one of the dullest in World Cup history, they battled it out and kept their cool to win the penalty shootout.
Gone are the days when the Ukrainian team was almost exclusively composed of Dynamo Kiev players, but the nucleus of this squad has been together for a long time and many have been at the famous Kiev club. This has installed a resilience and team spirit that the Italians may find hard to breakdown.
Knowledge of how teammates play must be better in the Italy camp however. The Italian squad is one of only two in the entire finals in which all the players play in the same country – the other being Saudi Arabia.
The Italians have built a tight-knit squad, which is just as well considering the fact many players and Italian club teams are embroiled in a damaging investigation into match fixing.
However, the Azzuri will be focusing on what happens on the pitch rather than off it and will be hoping to get on the back pages rather than the front.
Following the dramatic victory over Australia, Italy are unbeaten in 22 international matches, their longest run without a defeat since 1939.
Furthermore they have conceded just one goal in the 2006 World Cup – and that was an own goal.
With such confidence, and such a talented team, it's hard to back the Ukrainians overcoming the flair of the Italians to make it to the semis – but then again who thought Spain would already be on the flight home?
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