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IBARAKI, Japan (Ticker) -- Coach Giovanni Trapattoni thinks the Azzurri are victims of 'The Italian Job.' Ivica Olic and Milan Rapaic scored during a three-minute span as Croatia rallied late to beat Italy, 2-1, and claw back into contention for a second-round berth from Group G. Christian Vieri put Italy in front 10 minutes after the break, notching his eighth goal in seven World Cup matches. However, the star striker and his fellow Italians were furious that English referee Graham Poll disallowed two potential goals. "We have been robbed," Trapattoni said. "I think that one of the two goals, or maybe even both our goals that were not given, were OK. I think a draw would have been a good result." In the 50th minute, the referee's assistant waved the offside flag despite the fact Francesco Totti appeared to be even with the defender before he flicked the ball for Vieri, who clearly was onside, to finish. Then in injury time, substitute Filippo Inzaghi was whistled for shirt-pulling as the ball bounced through the penalty area, over Croatia goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa and into the net. "We've been very unlucky. The decision of the referee was incomprehensible," Vieri said. "There is no way that I could have been offside. And then we were very unlucky with the shot which hit on the post, of course." As the Italians scrambled for an equalizer in the closing minutes, Totti struck the left post with a curling free kick, which also just missed rebounding off flat-footed goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa as the ball whizzed across the face of goal. But Gianluca Zambrotta's 89th-minute blast was saved cleanly by Pletikosa. "I don't really know what happened, maybe we were too confident," said Italian defender Paolo Maldini, who matched the record of Germany's Uwe Seeler by playing in every second of 21 World Cup matches. "We thought we had made it after the first goal. We seem to perform better under difficult rather than easy circumstances." Olic, the leading scorer in the Croatian league who entered as a substitute just 16 minutes earlier, tallied the equalizer with 17 minutes left. It was his second goal in five internationals. Italy's star defender Alessandro Nesta was replaced by Marco Materazzi after just 24 minutes and the Azzurri seemed to miss him down the stretch. The Italian defense failed to clear the ball from danger and Croatia's Niko Kovac headed it back into the box. Milan Rapaic's left-footed swipe at the bouncing ball deflected off Materazzi's foot, forcing the ball to arc over goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and into the net. "It was my team's collective decision not to give up after Italy led 1-0," Croatia coach Mirko Jozic said. "I think the most decisive moment was the equalizing goal and, even after that, they continued to attack the Italian goal." "I think we had a psychological problem after the first goal and I must also say that the second goal by Croatia was rather lucky because it was more an own-goal by our side than Croatia's," Trapattoni said. In Thursday's final matches in group play, Italy faces Mexico, while Croatia takes on Ecuador. |
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