Group Nine Italy 4 Wales 0Down but not out. The topsy-turvy, illogical world of Euro 2004 qualifying Group Nine was most definitively righted at the San Siro in Milan on Saturday night when Italy resumed their natural place on top of the group with a 4-0 humiliation of previous leaders Wales.
Yet, when the Welsh have finished licking their wounds, they would do well to remind themselves that, at the very least, a place in the play-offs is still within their grasp. Wales now lie second, one point behind Italy and three clear of Finland, the side they next play in Cardiff on Wednesday.
After this drubbing, however, the task facing Wales is not easy. For a start, on Wednesday Wales will be without striker Craig Bellamy, midfielder Robbie Savage and defender Mark Delaney, who all picked up second yellow cards on Saturday night. More importantly, though, Welsh coach Mark Hughes will have to call on the combined psycho-analytical skills of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung if he is to raise his players' morale after this comprehensive defeat.
Even though the valiant Welshmen held out Italy for a full hour, there was always a sense the relentless Italian dominance would finally blow them away. The pre-match team news hardly augured well for the visitors. While Italy were able to field striker Christian Vieri, Wales found themselves without their first-choice central defensive pairing of Danny Gabbidon and Andrew Melville.
In theory, Wales needed a draw to stay top of the table. In practice, it was stretching the imagination to beyond Mars to believe they could come to the San Siro and pull off such a result without their first-choice defence. In the end, it is no exaggeration to say the final result does not do Italy justice.
Italy not only scored four times but also hit the post four times, saw Welsh defenders clear off the line twice and also saw striker Christian Vieri fall over himself after he had rounded Welsh goalkeeper Paul Jones and needed only to walk the ball into an empty net to score.
The definitive turning point in the game came in the 58th minute when Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni brought on Massimo Oddo for an out-of-sorts Christian Panucci.
Until then Italy had wasted their dominance of their right flank. It was no coincidence that within five minutes of Oddo being brought on, his precise crossing ability had laid on the opening two goals for Filippo Inzaghi, with the second of them offering a textbook example of clinical, near-post finishing. Another brilliantly-executed goal from Inzaghi in the 70th minute and one from the penalty spot from Alessandro Del Piero in the 77th wrapped up the business for Italy.
As Hughes tries to rally team spirit he would do well to recall the fact that for a full hour, the Welsh had not just ridden their luck but they had also stood their ground valiantly, giving a disciplined display in which striker John Hartson, midfielders Robbie Savage and Jason Koumas and defender Mark Delaney were magnificent.
For the Italians, this was a splendid evening and one when they defied some of those tired old, Anglo-Saxon clichés about Italian soccer. First, Italian national teams never try to score more than one or, at most, two goals; second, coach Trapattoni is so defensively minded he never plays with more than two men up front; third, AC Milan striker Inzaghi is a low-rent diver and offside merchant.
On a night when Trapattoni played three strikers (Del Piero, Inzaghi and Vieri) and when Inzaghi became the first Italian since the peerless Paolo Rossi to score an international hat-trick, Italy gave a textbook demonstration of controlled, relentless and intelligent attacking football.
In fairness to the Welsh, the hoarseness of Trapattoni's voice after the game said much about their performance. Trapattoni had had to do a lot of shouting, especially in the first half. Indeed, he admitted that, as chance after chance was missed, he began to wonder if someone had not walked around the pitch with a black cat. In Italy, black cats bring bad luck.
For Trapattoni, though, this was a night of particular satisfaction, one in which he laid the ghost both of last year's 2-1 defeat in Cardiff and, to a lesser extent, his palpable failure at last year's World Cup finals.
The Italian coach also enthused afterwards about his players' attitude, revealing the tired Vieri had declined to be substituted. With his players clearly behind him and with the team recording its seventh consecutive win this year, Trapattoni can look forward to Wednesday's key away tie against Serbia Montenegro with some confidence.
ITALY: Buffon; Panucci (Oddo 59th), Nesta, Cannavaro, Zambrotta; Camoranesi, Zanetti, Perrotta (Fiore 87th), Del Piero; Inzaghi (Gattuso 70th), Vieri.
WALES: Jones; Delaney, Pembridge (Johnson 79th), Page, Speed; Bellamy, Koumas (Earnshaw 71st), Savage, Davies, Giggs; Hartson (Blake 83rd) Goals: Inzaghi 60, 62, 70, Del Piero 77 Pen. Booked: Buffon (I), Savage, Bellamy and Delaney (W).
Referee: M Merk (Ger).
