Italy 1 -1 Ireland: The reaction

A tough night for the Azzurri, a tough night largely thanks to a referee who harshly sent of Giampaolo Pazzini for challenge on John O 'Shea after just four minutes. Pazzini jumped catching O'Shea in the face with his arm whilst watching the ball, but was shown a straight red. The referee was probably influenced by the amount of blood on O'Shea, but clearly it was the wrong decision based upon violent conduct as Pazzini was simply ball watching. This, of course, changed the whole complection of the game, but it did not stop the Azzurri from taking the lead. Once again Pirlo was the architect as he played a long ball to the wonderful Fabio Grosso who cut back inside the box and passed to the well placed Iaquinta who placed it into the back of the net from all of five yards out. Despite playing with ten men Italy looked confident and assured in possession in the first half and nearly doubled their lead again through Iaqunita, only for Given to take the ball of Iaquinta's head.

The pressure of playing with ten men would soon tell after the break, as Ireland held the bulk of the possession and tested Buffon on more than one occasion with notable save from Kilbane as he pushed his effort over the bar for a corner. Italy could, and perhaps should, have taken a 2 - 0 lead before that effort though, as Iaquinta punched out a lung bursting run down the right channel, but a cross for Liverpool man Dossena was just deflected in time to put him off.

However, despite Italy's brave endeavour with ten men, Robbie Keane drew the Irish level with just one minute of regulation remaining, firing home on the volley from inside the box after some root one football.

The result in context
The Italians will be disappointed tonight and rightly so. They were robbed of any chance to play eleven on eleven football, and probably would have won comfortably in that scenario. However, they still yield a two point advantage over Ireland and should take six points from their next two games away at Georgia and at home to Bulgaria. Ultimately, Lippi should be pleased that a team with ten men did not loose a game that would have allowed Ireland to lead the group, and that through the International break his nation now has a two point lead at the top of Group 8.