Coach Dunga in war of words with scribes ahead of Portugal clash
Striker's brace ensure defending champions Italy go out without a single win
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World champions Italy suffered an embarrassing exit at the first hurdle thanks to Slovakia's pulsating 3-2 World Cup Group F victory at Ellis Park.
Robert Vittek struck either side of the break before Antonio Di Natale's goal gave Italy hope. Kamil Kopunek made the game safe for Slovakia in the 89th minute, before a further consolation from Fabio Quagliarella.
The 2006 winners knew before the game that a win would definitely be enough for them to progress to the next round, while a draw may prove just enough. Slovakia needed nothing less than a win, and would need to do so by a couple of goals if New Zealand beat Paraguay.
Italy made two changes as expected, bringing in Gennaro Gattuso and Di Natale for Claudio Marchisio and Alberto Gilardino.
Slovakia made twice as many changes, with Radoslav Zabavnik, Juraj Kucka, Miroslav Stoch and Erik Jendrisek replacing Kornel Sakata, Jan Kozak, Stanislav Sestak and Vladimir Weiss after the defeat to Paraguay.
One of the new starters, Di Natale, was clearly looking to make an immediate impact as he attempted a speculative lob from distance inside the first 20 seconds, but it failed to trouble Jan Mucha in the Slovakia goal.
It was a rather nervy start to the game, with stakes extremely high for both countries.u00a0
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| Slovakian players celebrate a goal during their 3-2 shock win over Italy yesterday. PIC/GETTY IMAGES |
The first yellow card was always going to be chalked up reasonably early, and Zdeno Strba was the recipient for a foul on the spinning Gattuso.
Moments later Simone
Pepe attempted to catch out Mucha from distance, ignoring the back post run of Di Natale in the process, but the keeper managed to get down and smother than swinging Jabulani ball.
As Italy were beginning to get into their stride, Slovakia continued to cause problems with long passes into the channels, with Jendrisek causing Giorgio Chiellini to concede a corner. But when the set piece was delivered from the right, just cleared Hamsik at the back post.
But Slovakia's period of pressure came to fruition on 25 minutes when Daniele De Rossi gave the ball away too easily in midfield and the ball was quickly fed to Robert Vittek, who slid a perfect right foot shot low to Marchetti's right to give the eastern Europeans a surprise lead.
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