MY HOMEPAGE

ITALY vs CROATIA

Match Report below

Match Stats: -

MAN OF THE MATCH: Davor Vugrinec (Croatia)

Teams:

Italy:
          1-Gianluigi Buffon
          2-Christian Panucci
          5-Fabio Cannavaro
        13-Alessandro Nesta (23-Marco Materazzi 23)
          3-Paolo Maldini
        19-Gianluca Zambrotta
          6-Cristiano Zanetti
        17-Damiano Tommasi
        11-Cristiano Doni (9-Filippo Inzaghi 79)
        10-Francesco Totti
        21-Christian Vieri

Croatia:
          1-Stipe Pletikosa
        15-Daniel Saric
        21-Robert Kovac
          3-Josip Simunic
        17-Robert Jarni
          4-Stjepan Tomas
        14-Zvonimir Soldo (16-Jurica Vranjes 63)
        10-Niko Kovac
          7-Davor Vugrinec (18-Ivica Olic 57)
          5-Milan Rapaic (20-Dario Simic 79)
        11-Alen Boksic

Referee: Graham Poll (England)
Linesmen: Egon Bereuter (Austria) Ali Tomusange (Uganda)

Match Report: -

A contraversial ending to a match that Italy should have won, especially when they went ahead through Vieri, not far after the half time interval The first half seemed to be controlled but Italy but often were pinned back by breaks from Croatia. No goal was to be scored though.

In the second half it started much the same but Italy took control and scored, then after the 70th minute, things started to change. They found an equaliser through Olic in the 73rd minute, soon to be followed by his team mate, Repaic, 3 minutes later.

Then Italy scored twice only to be told that both goals were to be disallowed after Graham Poll had to consult his linesman for both disallowals.

The match finished in Croatia's favour but really should have been won by Italy, especially Vieri thinks so after blasting the referee and the linesman.