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Goals but no sparkle from Italy

CATANIA, Sicily, Jan 28 (AFP) -Italy ground out a lacklustre 3-0 victory over Slovakia here on Wednesday night in their first friendly before the World Cup.

The 1994 runners-up failed to get into their stride in a goalless first-half, but a goal blitz soon after the re-start saw Fabrizio Ravanelli, Alessandro del Piero and Roberto di Matteo all find the target.

However, it remains to be seen what coach Cesare Maldini can have learned from his experiments here.

Despite dominating possession, particularly in the second half, Italy lacked fluidity in their game and it took a couple of inspired moves by debut-making substitute Francesco Moriero to penetrate a modest Slovak defence.

Maldini defended what he described as “a good test”, but his side will need to be a lot more incisive than this to make progress at France ’98, despite an encouraging start.

Ravanelli flicked the ball on for his former Juventus teammate Del Piero, who failed to get any real power behind his angled shot — while Angelo di Livio did no better from five yards with a bouncing ball neatly supplied by Luigi di Biagio.

Di Biagio, an AS Roma midfielder making a promising international debut, also sent in four shots, though all of them were off-target.

However, his wayward efforts and a snapshot from Del Piero which Slovak goalkeeper Alexander Vencel needed two attempts to stop were all Italy had to show for a fairly dormant first half-hour.

Slovakia looked sharper on the counter-attack, with Lubomir Moravcik and Josef Kozley causing trouble for Italy’s back four.

Del Piero miscued a shot from just inside the area in the 37th minute, while skipper Paolo Maldini skewed another horribly wide five minutes later.

The best scoring chance came Italy’s way in injury-time. Di Biagio sent a long ball upfield over the Slovak defence, Del Piero controlled it beautifully with a single touch but then bungled his shot.

Cesare Maldini began to re-shuffle his pack at half-time and it paid off within three minutes.

Moriero made a dream start to his international debut, deftly trapping a cross-field pass with the outside of his boot, surging past a defender and unleashing a barrelling left-foot drive.

Vencel needed both fists to punch it out, but Ravanelli got his boot in a split-second before his marker’s and chipped the ball over the stranded keeper.

Di Biagio hit the post with a low drive in the 52nd minute, but 45 seconds set up Del Piero’s goal after a howling defensive error.

The Roma midfielder poked the ball through the middle of the Slovak area, but Jaroslav Timko’s interception pushed the ball past Vencel and straight to the feet of Del Piero, who knocked it into an empty net.

Moriero was also behind Italy’s third goal, with the Inter Milan midfielder breaking into the right hand side of the area and sending over an inch-perfect cross for Ravanelli.

Vencel punched out the former Middlesbrough striker’s header. But although the ball was cleared from Slovakia’s six-yard box, there was no-one to stop the inrushing Di Matteo from smacking the ball home on the bounce from around the penalty spot.

Ravanelli handed over to Filippo Inzaghi in the 65th minute, while Del Piero made way for Parma’s Enrico Chiesa, who forced a desperate save from Vencel with a well-taken 75th minute free-kick.

Slovakia kept Italy out for the final quarter of an hour, although Moriero was unlucky not to get more power behind an acrobatic shot at the end after Di Biagio floated the ball in.