Jul 1, 2006

Italy 3 - Ukraine 0

A rampant Luca Toni scored twice to end Ukraine's World Cup odyssey and take Italy into the World Cup semi-finals.


Toni finally ended his goalscoring drought on German soil with two second-half goals to crush the hopes of an entire nation. Gianluca Zambrotta had opened the scoring in the sixth minute before last season's top Serie A scorer stole the limelight. Toni headed the Azzurri's second shortly before the hour mark before capping a wonderful evening for Marcello Lippi's men shortly after. Playing in their first ever quarter-final, the Ukrainians looked nervous and jittery and were at the mercy of their rivals in the opening half. Oleg Blokhin's men did battle after the re-start and were only denied by superb saves from Gianluigi Buffon before Toni killed them off. An estimated 46million Ukrainians back home watched their heroes make their exit and the Ukrainian players can feel proud of having gone so far in what has been a sensational first World Cup campaign. Italy now take on host nation Germany in Tuesday's semi-final in Dortmund.

Very very funny atmosphere at Santore' together with food, frolics and good company.
After the 3rd goal they played l'inno d'Italia and the entire restaurant rose to sing, the non-Italians they partecipated too with forks and glasses.

No comments: