TURKEY v ITALY

TURKEY 1 (Okan 60) ITALY 2 (Conte 51, Inzaghi 69 (pen))

Another interesting game. (I hesitate to say "exciting" because I cannot get excited when games kick off at this time). The Italians looked SO nervous during the playing of their anthem - and instead of holding hands, they put their arms around each other. Aaah! :) The stadium was mostly filled with Turkish fans, who made a very vocal and colourful impression. The few Italian fans that had turned up though, had more to sing about. They dominated the game in the first 20 minutes. Poor, weak finishing by Inzaghi though, saw some frustration come into their game - and the Turks had a goodish spell near the end of the first half. Neither side managed even a shot on target in the first half though - which is as well for the Turkish goalie - for he is tragic, to be kind.

It was noticeable that the Italians' new lycra shirts are not exactly skin-tight, which was somewhat disappointing. I didn't like them though - they looked like diving suits. Antonio Conte opened the scoring on 51 minutes. Some nice work from Fiore and Inzaghi allowed Conte to score from a neatly exercised bicycle kick. The man was happy! It then looked as if the Italians might run riot. However, on 60 minutes and some very sloppy defending from a free-kick, allowed Okan (1.69m high) to score from his head. Toldo was rooted. But then, Toldo is rooted most of the time - I don't rate him.

Then a dodgy penalty decision from Scottish referee Hugh Dallas. He judged that Pips had been elbowed inside the area - but most think he just stumbled. Certainly Inzaghi wasn't looking for a penalty. Mr Dallas was pelted with cans and paper cups from the Turkish fans! The Turkish players protested vociferously - and it took a lot of bottle from Inzaghi to take the penalty, to be fair. He took it with aplomb. 2-1. Shortly afterwards, Del Piero replaced Totti and his first kick was a wonderful free-kick which only just scraped wide. Further efforts from him and from Inzaghi resulted in nothing. Conte thought he'd scored a second - but he was ruled offside. So, a nervous last few minutes for the Azzurri fans - but they collected the 3 points in the end. They should've collected them with ease though. Turkey were very poor.

I was suprised that Del Piero didn't start the game. He played Totti, out of position, up front with Inzaghi - and it didn't really work. Inzaghi showed poor lack of pace and equally poor finishing skills. Totti was disappointing and should've been substituted earlier, imo.

Poor man of the match: Abdullah.

Teams and things

TURKEY (4-4-2): 1 R Rüstü (Fenerbahçe) - 5 O Alpay (Fenerbahçe), 19 E Abdullah (Fenerbahçe), 3 O Temizkanoglu (Fenerbahçe), 4 A Fatih (Galatasaray) - 7 B Okan (Galatasaray; sub: 16 P Ergün, Galatasaray, 89), 2 H Tayfur (Besiktas), 11 T Korkut (Fenerbahçe), 22 D Umit (Galatasaray; sub: 8 K Tugay, 76) - 9 H Sukur (Galatasaray), Y Sergen (Galatasaray; sub: 6 E Arif, Galatasaray, 81). Substitutes not used: 12 C Omer (Gaziantepspor), 21 T Fevzi (Besiktas), 13 O Osman (Trabzonspor), 14 K Suat (Galatasaray), 15 M Izzet (Leicester City), 17 O Derelioglu (Gaziantepspor), 18 A Ayhan (Besiktas), 20 U Hakan (Galatasaray).

ITALY (3-5-2): 12 F Toldo (Fiorentina) - 5 F Cannavaro (Parma), 13 A Nesta (Lazio), 3 P Maldini (AC Milan) - 17 G Zambrotta (Juventus), 8 A Conte (Juventus), 4 D Albertini (AC Milan), 18 S Fiore (Udinese; sub: 10 A Del Piero, Juventus, 74), 11 G Pessotto (Juventus; sub: 15 M Iuliano, Juventus, 62) - 20 F Totti (AS Roma; sub: 7 A Di Livio, Fiorentina, 83), 9 F Inzaghi (Juventus). Substitutes not used: 1 C Abbiati (AC Milan), 22 F Antonioli (AS Roma), 2 C Feffara (Juventus), 6 P Negro (Lazio), 14 L Di Biagio (Internazionale), 16 M Ambrosini (AC Milan), 19 V Montella (AS Roma), 21 M Delvecchio (AS Roma).

Referee: H Dallas (Scotland).