Headlines on win over Portugal misleading!

Italy tri­umphed over Por­tu­gal yes­ter­day 3–1 but the score­line doesn’t do Por­tu­gal justice.

Azzurri pum­mel Por­tu­gal? Not a chance.

Por­tu­gal was more dom­i­nant the first half but came away with noth­ing to show for their early per­for­mance. In fact the Iberi­ans went down a goal prior to half time. A lapse of com­mu­ni­ca­tion allowed a low cross to pen­e­trated two defend­ers and the keeper giv­ing the Azzurri the lead. Por­tuguese defender, Ricardo Car­valho, instead of clear­ing the ball from the dan­ger area was caught out call­ing for off­side enabling Ital­ian striker Luca Toni to slot a soft goal in at the far post, 1–0 Italy.
Six min­utes into the sec­ond half stunned Por­tu­gal was again caught look­ing as Andrea Pirlo pro­duced Italy’s sec­ond from the edge of the area. Strik­ing the wood­work on it’s way in, the goal was even­tu­ally awarded to Can­navaro with the small­est of deflec­tions, 2–0 Italy. The next 25 min­utes pro­duced a bat­tle of the fittest as Por­tu­gal would try to find a way back into the match. New arrivals of Meire­les for Por­tu­gal and Per­rotta for Italy made for enter­tain­ing view­ing. The pair­ing of Grosso with Di Natale on the left caused prob­lems for the Por­tuguese. After sev­eral missed oppor­tu­ni­ties Por­tu­gal finally placed their first behind Ital­ian keeper Amelia when Quaresma scores a beauty in the 77th minute against really poor defend­ing by Italy. The Por­tuguese look­ing reju­ve­nated had their rocket come crash­ing down yet again as a third goal for Italy (80′ Quagliarella ) went past Ricardo. Por­tu­gal never stopped hop­ing and con­tin­ued to surge for­ward pro­duc­ing sev­eral qual­ity chances late in the match. Ronaldo in par­tic­u­lar should have pulled at least one more goal back from a div­ing header dur­ing the final moments.

So, Italy pum­mel Por­tu­gal? No and nei­ther was it a “stroll past Por­tu­gal” the Por­tuguese defeated them­selves hav­ing ample oppor­tu­nity to take charge but not clos­ing the deal,
“Italy pun­ishes Por­tu­gal” is surely a more accu­rate headline.