Italy goes home after 3-2 loss to Slovakia

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Defending champion Italy was eliminated Thursday from the World Cup with a humbling 3-2 loss to Slovakia, which advanced.

Slovakia finished second in Group F to Paraguay. The Italians were last, the first time they’ve ever finished at the bottom of an opening-round group.

For the third consecutive game, the Azzurri allowed an early goal and this time they never recovered.

Robert Vittek put Slovakia ahead in the 25th minute, taking advantage of an errant pass from midfielder Daniele De Rossi. Vittek doubled the lead from close range in the 73rd following a corner kick.

Antonio Di Natale scored for Italy in the 81st, but Kamil Kopunek ended Italy’s chances eight minutes later, even though Fabio Quagliarella scored in injury time for the four-time champions.

It marked the end of an era for Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro and Gennaro Gattuso, who already announced their retirement from the national team after the tournament. Coach Marcello Lippi is also moving on, with Cesare Prandelli already chosen as his successor.

Italy’s squad featured nine players 30 or over and Prandelli will be charged with a major overhaul. Italy hasn’t won since beating Sweden 1-0 in a friendly in November, drawing five times and losing twice.

Never have the previous World Cup finalists both failed to advance in the next tournament when both qualified. France, which lost to Italy on penalty kicks for the 2006 title, went out earlier this week in Group A.

Slovakia plays Monday in Durban against the winner of Group E. Many of the Slovak players were in tears at the end of the match, and the reserves gathered in a circle, jumping up and down in celebration. It is the first World Cup for Slovakia as an independent nation.

Slovakia finished with a win, a draw and a loss for four points. Italy had two draws and Thursday’s bitter defeat.

Italy also allowed early goals in its 1-1 draws with Paraguay and New Zealand and the Azzurri attack struggled in all three games – save for the final 10 minutes against Slovakia, when the Italians got desperate.

Vittek’s opening goal came on a low shot just beyond the reach of goalkeeper Federico Marchetti, who again replaced the injured Gianluigi Buffon. He then went around Giorgio Chiellini from close range following a corner kick for his second goal.

Di Natale slid in a rebound from Quagliarella’s shot and, with four forwards on, Quagliarella nearly equalized in the 85th, but was ruled offside by the smallest of margins.

Slovakia restored its two-goal lead in the 89th when substitute Kopunek lifted a bouncing ball over Marchetti.

Quagliarella finally found the target in the second minute of added time with a delicate lob.

Still, for 80 minutes Italy’s forwards were unable to find the target, and no forward scored in open play during the Azzurri’s opening two matches.

Paraguay into 2nd round after 0-0 draw with Kiwis

POLOKWANE, South Africa (AP) — Paraguay was held to an uneventful 0-0 draw by New Zealand on Thursday but still won its World Cup group and moved into the round of 16.

Neither team created much in the way of scoring chances, despite displaying more urgency in the final minutes than in a turgid first half at Peter Mokaba Stadium.

Paraguay finished with five points in Group F. Slovakia, which upset defending champion Italy on Thursday, also advanced with four points. New Zealand finished third in the group with three points off as many draws, while the Italians finished last.

Probably the best chance of the match came when Paraguay substitute Edgar Benitez struck a low shot that was saved by New Zealand goalkeeper Mark Paston in the 76th minute. The other notable chance came 12 minutes earlier, when Cristian Riveros headed straight at Paston from a short corner.

The Paraguayans – who also reached the second round at the World Cup in 1986, 1998 and 2002 – continued South America’s dominance of the tournament.

The continent’s teams have 10 wins, no losses and three draws. Four of the five South American squads have qualified for the next round and the fifth, Chile, can do so Friday night.

A few of the Paraguayan players pulled their socks off at the end of the match and threw them into the midfield section of the stands where their fans stood and cheered.

“It was a very hard match, but in the end it was the most important thing to qualify,” Paraguay coach Gerardo Martino said. “We had many problems in our attack today, to get through their defense. But the result is in our favor.”

Having lost all three matches back in 1982 – in its only other World Cup appearance – New Zealand now heads home unbeaten, and winless, at this tournament after earlier 1-1 draws with Slovakia and Italy, a team ranked 73 places above the Kiwis.

New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert, who played on that ’82 team, made no apologies for sticking to a conservative gameplan against Paraguay and hoping for a couple of good scoring chances.

“We’ll never go through another World Cup unbeaten,” he said.

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