SubKorea > 축구 > 2005년 세계청소년 > 스코어보드 > 이탈리아 : 시리아
Group E 2차전 FIFA World Youth Championship 
 
Syria stun Italy for famous victory (1:2) 
(FIFA.com) 15 Jun 2005  
  
Goals Scored: ALHOUSAIN Abd (SYR) 37' , AL HAMWI Mohammad (SYR) 69' , CODA Andrea (ITA) 73' 
 
Syrian keeper Adnan Al Hafez celebrates the win against Italy. Toin Damen PRO SHOTS  
   
Syria produced one of the shocks of the FIFA World Youth Championship Netherlands 2005 as they deservedly earned a thrilling win over Italy, who now sit at the bottom of Group E after a night of great drama in Tilburg.  
  
Goals in either half proved the undoing of Italy, who are still pointless after two games and in desperate trouble of heading for a first round exit. The best they can hope for now is to beat Canada in Kerkrade on Saturday and hope to finish as one of the best third-placed teams in the tournament groups. 
  
With four points out of a possible six, Syria could scarcely be much better off at this stage and head coach Milosav Radenovic said:"This is a historical day for Syrian football. We were working hard for the reputation of the Syrian people and I think we have made them all very happy in Damascus tonight." 
  
Before the game, Radenovic highlighted Italy's difficulties in dealing with quick players and team talisman Majed al Haj wasted no time in testing that theory out, breaking forward and going close twice early on. 
  
Italy did not look comfortable dealing with the threat of al Haj whenever he darted forward and he was fouled for the penalty which brought the game's opening goal. Hamzeh al Aitoni took the spot-kick and though Emiliano Viviano did tremendously well to keep it out with a save to his right, Syria's Abd Alhousain sprinted in first to force home the rebound (0:1, 37').  
  
The Italians were seeing plenty of possession and were happy performing neat interchanges in the middle of the pitch, but they lacked the incisive touch in front of goal. Syrian 'keeper Adnan al Hafez produced solid saves to deny Marino Defendi and Daniele Galloppa, but defender Andrea Coda had Italy's best chance in the opening period. 
  
The imposing Michele Troiano beat al Hafez to a high cross with his header and it fell to Coda to turn the ball into an open goal but he could only sidefoot over the bar from six yards out. Syria struggled with Italy's height up front, but despite carving out two good openings for himself, Graziano Pelle could not find the way through.  
  
Hamzeh Al Aitoni's penalty is saved, but Abd Alhousain followed up to score the rebound. (PRO SHOTS) Toin Damen  
  
Italians try to respond 
Fired up after the half-time talk from Berrettini, Italy took the game to Syria in the second half, with Pelle immediately heading narrowly wide and Galloppa making sure al Hafez was on his toes with a forceful effort. The Syrian number one duly obliged. 
  
Syria weathered the early storm and enjoyed the freedom of the Italian half whenever they were able to break forward as spaces opened up. Al Haj was as keen as ever to exploit that and his creative instincts led to the second goal. 
  
Al Haj fired just over before going even closer by hitting the crossbar moments later. As Italy dithered with the loose ball in the box, Mohammad Al Hamwi popped up to make them pay for their hesitation by scoring from close range (0:2, 69') 
  
Sensing their FIFA World Youth Championship hopes were crashing around them, Italy turned the last 20 minutes into one-way traffic bearing down on Syria and Coda gave the azzurrini a lifeline by heading in, though it seemed as if he knew little about it at the time (1:2, 73'). 
  
That was not enough to save Italy though and their dejected coach Paolo Berrettini said: "My team were unlucky and they did the best they could. In Italy, we say: 'Hope is the last thing to die' and we will try to do our best against Canada."