Italy have beaten Ukraine 3-0 in the second quarter-final of the World Cup Finals in Hamburg on Friday, with an early strike from Gianluca Zambrotta and two goals from Luca Toni to secure a semi-final meeting with Germany.

It was Italy who took control of the match right from the start, taking the lead after a goal in the 7th minute from a stunning strike from nowhere from Gianluca Zambrotta after latching onto a cross from Francesco Totti.

Ukraine had no real chances at goal in the first-half, with the Azzurri defending extremely well and forcing Ukraine to a series of half-hearted counter attacks and Italians doing what they do best…defending a slender lead perfectly.

Andriy Rusol was forced to retire just before half-time, with Vladyslav Vashchuk replacing him and with Ukraine looking totally without any attacking ideas.

The game went into half-time with Italy well in command and with Ukraine lacking any attacking initiative.

Ukraine did get their attacking together for the second-half, with a couple of good early attacks at the Italian goal, with Azzurri keeper Gianluca Buffon bashing his head heavily against his own goalpost in the process, but recovering and continuing.

After consistent pressure from Ukraine, Italy were lucky not to concede an equaliser in the 58th minute after Buffon made a wonderful save to deny Oleg Gusev when he broke clear on goal, with Zambrotta making a goal-line clearance from the rebound from Maksym Kalininchenko.

Just seconds later, Italy doubled their lead after Totti placed a perfect cross for Luca Toni to score his first goal of the World Cup Finals after he broke free of his marker to head the ball past Oleksandr Shovkovskyi to make it 2-0 in the 59th minute.

Ukraine continued to press, but Italy were very dangerous on the counter attack and just ten minutes later Luca Toni doubles his tally with a wonderful strike from the most perfectly placed pass from the excellent Zambrotta.

There was no way back for the Ukraine after that, with Italy defending their lead impeccably and knowing that they had secured a semi-final berth against Germany.

The game finished 3-0 to Italy, who now face Germany in the
First semi-final in Dortmünd on July 4.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

delicious | digg | google | yahoo | technorati