Iaquinta saves the day as Italy beat New Zealand

New Delhi: Substitute Vincenzo Iaquinta scored twice in the last 22 minutes as a sometimes shambolic Italy trailed three times before beating New Zealand 4-3 in their final pre-Confederations Cup warm-up clash in Pretoria.

Following the resounding 3-0 weekend win over Northern Ireland, Italy were hoping for another big scoreline against fellow Confederations Cup competitors New Zealand.

Italy again fielded a largely second-string eleven, although Davide Santon played yet again, while Alberto Gilardino started in attack, supported by Simone Pepe, Giuseppe Rossi and Fabio Quagliarella.

First Half

Italy were expected to win this game comfortably, but New Zealand took a shock lead on 12 minutes as Shane Smeltz was left completely unmarked from a free kick to head home, although Amelia was at fault and should have saved the effort.

After Giuseppe Rossi tested goalkeeper Glenn Moss, New Zealand should have gone 2-0 up, as Smelz outfoxed Alessandro Gamberini and Nicola Legrottaglie, but with just Amelia to beat he shot inches wide of the post.

Italy were on extremely poor form, and were barely threatening, although there was a sniff of a chance on the half-hour mark, as Gilardino tried to scramble the ball home, but Andrew Boyens got a block in.

On 33 minutes Italy did finally find the equaliser. Quagliarella breezed past Vicelich on the left and lifted the ball up for Gilardino, who headed home from yards out.

Incredibly though, Italy were only on level terms for little more than eight minutes, as New Zealand went ahead once again. Marco Amelia came out disastrously at a corner, and Chris Killen bulleted home a header off the bar.

Second Half

Andrea Pirlo replaced Giuseppe Rossi at half time as Italy attempted to add some creativity, and within two minutes they were level again. Quagliarella again got the assist, crossing for Gilardino to head home into the bottom corner.

Just when Italy thought they would kick on, they shot themselves in the foot again. Amelia made it a hat-trick of disastrous mistakes as he comically upended Killen. The striker stepped up himself to squeeze the ball under Amelia’s body, a penalty the goalkeeper should have saved.

Amelia risked gifting a fourth goal when he again flapped at a corner, before Lippi made four changes, as Luca Toni, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Riccardo Montolivo and Mauro Camoranesi all entered the fray.

One of these earned Italy a third equaliser on 68 minutes as Iaquinta ran onto Pirlo’s through pass, and slotted the ball past Moss.

The Juventus striker turned the game around completely five minutes later as Moss could only parry Montolivo’s drive, and Iaquinta was on hand to sweep home the rebound.

Toni could have scored a fifth, as he was denied by Moss from six yards out, and the Bayern man then had two further efforts that drifted wide.

Italy won this thriller 4-3, but Lippi is certain to come under huge criticism following a sometimes shambolic display. New Zealand, meanwhile, will be delighted as they were 20 minutes from arguably the most famous victory in their footballing history.

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