A goal 12 minutes from time from an effervescent Mario Balotelli sealed a 2-1 win for Italy over Mexico in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana on Sunday in their Confederations Cup Group A opener.
Balotelli struck from close range on 78 minutes to give Italy a precious win as they joined Brazil on three points following the hosts’ 3-0 win over Japan in Brasilia on Saturday.
The result delighted Italy coach Cesare Prandelli, though he had harsh words for Balotelli after the striker took his shirt off to celebrate the goal, earning a needless booking just 10 days after being sent off in a World Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic.
Photo: Reuters
“Mario needs to stop taking his shirt off after scoring a goal,” the coach said.
“Picking up silly bookings is not a good idea in a tournament as difficult as this one,” added Prandelli, who after the Czech Republic incident had told his wayward forward that immature behavior was “his personal problem and he should learn to cope with it.”
However, Prandelli heaped praise on fellow scorer Andrea Pirlo, who celebrated a century of appearances for the Azzurri with a magnificent free-kick for the opening goal.
“I can hardly find the words to define Pirlo. Let’s just be grateful to him and applaud what he does,” he said.
Meanwhile, Balotelli said he would have to rein in his exuberance as another booking would see him suspended and potentially cost him his place if Italy reach the semi-finals.
“I didn’t know about that rule of two yellows. I shall have to take care the next time I score a goal,” he told reporters.
Once again, protests by locals demonstrating at the cost of staging the tournament soured the buildup as had been the case for Brazil’s match, with about 500 people milling outside the Maracana before police dispersed them with tear gas.
Italy took the lead in the 27th minute with a sumptuous free-kick from midfield veteran Pirlo, the 34-year-old sending a curling long-range effort past Mexico goalkeeper Jose Corona.
Even prior to that, Italy had looked to be in attacking mode as Balotelli fired in a low shot which Corona saved smartly, before the former Manchester City striker almost deceived the goalkeeper with a dipping salvo.
Pirlo then went down in the box after tangling with Emanuele Giaccherini, but Chilean referee Enrique Osses was unimpressed as Jose Manuel de la Torre’s Mexico weathered the early pressure.
Pirlo’s breakthrough finally galvanized Mexico, who won the competition on home soil in 1999, into action and within six minutes they were level through Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez from the penalty spot.
Gio dos Santos dispossessed Andrea Barzagli on the edge of his area before he was shoved by his rival and a penalty was awarded.
Prandelli fielded no fewer than six Juventus men in his starting lineup, but it was AC Milan’s erratic Balotelli who went close once again as he drew another save from the equally busy Corona.
Hector Moreno found the best way to stop the former Manchester City striker was by illegal means and he duly picked up a yellow card for a foul at the start of the second period, before skipper Francisco Rodriguez tried the same technique and earned the same punishment.
Just after the hour Pirlo sent another trademark free-kick just wide of the upright, before Prandelli sent on some fresh legs when he replaced Claudio Marchisio with Alessio Cerci of Torino.
A Gerardo Flores header was the best Mexico could offer as they faded away in the possible belief they had done enough to emerge with an eighth draw in 11 games, the series of stalemates holding up their attempts to qualify for next year’s World Cup, but Balotelli’s late effort, firing in after a neat flick from Emanuele Giaccherini, stunned them and saw Italy take a giant leap toward reaching the semi-finals with Brazil and Japan to come, burying the memories of an embarrassing warm-up draw with Haiti.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier