Italy 1 — 2 Austria, Game In Progress

The Azzurri return to the field this evening try­ing to for­get their early depar­ture from Euro com­pe­ti­tion ear­lier this sum­mer.  Back with the team is World Cup win­ning man­ager Mar­cello Lippi who has warned his play­ers this will not be an easy task fac­ing Aus­tria with many miss­ing faces in team Italia’s roster.

It’s half time in Nice France and Italy trail Aus­tria by a goal.  Prior to match-time Lippi was quoted say­ing, “With Aus­tria I hope to see a Italy that fight” I hope so to but it’ll have to hap­pen in the sec­ond half if they hope to sal­vage this one.

All out with injury are Marco Mat­er­azzi, Mauro Camoranesi, Fabio Can­navaro, Gior­gio Chiellini, Luca Toni and Gen­naro Gat­tuso who started but picked up an injury in the first 45mins.  Miss­ing also include Anto­nio Cas­sano as well as Chris­t­ian Panucci and Mas­simo Ambrosini never favorites of Man­ager Lippi.

Goalscor­ers: Pogatetz 14 (A), Janko 38 (A), Gilardino 45 (I)

Italy: Buf­fon; Zam­brotta, Bon­era, Barza­gli, Grosso; Gat­tuso (Per­rotta 45), Pirlo, De Rossi; Di Natale, Gilardino, Del Piero
Aus­tria: Man­ninger; Gar­ics, Prodl, Stranzl, Pogatetz; Scharner, Saumel, Harnik, Ivan­schitz, Fuchs; Maier­hofer
Ref: Coue’ (Fra)

Tagged as: Azzurri, friendly, Marcello Lippi