Manchester City pair Elano and Robinho scored for Brazil in a 2-0 victory over world champion Italy to end Marcello Lippi's 31-match unbeaten record.
A positive result at the Emirates Stadium would allow Lippi to set a new record of 32 matches unbeaten on the Azzurri bench, but instead he fell to his first defeat since a 1-0 in Slovenia on October 2004.
The meeting of the two sides with more World Cups than any other nation was expected to be an enthralling encounter and the match certainly lived up to the expectation.
With just four minutes gone, left-back Fabio Grosso superbly volleyed home after latching onto Andrea Pirlo's through ball, but his effort was disallowed for an incorrect offside position.
Brazil took the lead after 16 minutes when Elano combined with City team-mate Robinho to cut the defence through the middle before firing the ball beyond Gianluigi Buffon.
A counterattack 11 minutes later saw Carlos Dunga's men increased the lead. Pirlo carelessly lost possession on the edge of his own box to Robinho, who dribbled between three Azzurri defenders before unleashing a low shot past Buffon.
Elano then came close to a spectacular third for Brazil when he cut in from the right and unleashed a remarkable curler that swerved inwards to skim the far top corner.
Lippi made four changes at the interval and the Italians looked more assertive but had another goal disallowed when Luca Toni appeared to take Pirlo's deep ball down with his hand before firing past Júlio César.
César produced an excellent point-blank save to deny Toni from close range nine minutes from time after Giuseppe Rossi's cut-back from the touchline had found the striker in space inside the six-yard box.
Italy: Buffon; Zambrotta, Legrottaglie, Cannavaro, Grosso; Pirlo (Dossena 74), De Rossi (Aquilani 58), Montolivo (Camoranesi 46); Di Natale (Perrotta 46), Gilardino (Rossi 46), Pepe (Toni 46)
Brazil: Júlio César; Maicon, Lúcio, Juan (Thiago Silva 77), Marcelo; Gilberto Silva (Josué 88), Felipe Melo; Elano (Daniel Alves 69), Ronaldinho, Robinho (Júlio Baptista 88); Adriano (Pato 80)
Related links:
Team
Also see:
Technorati tags:World soccer Soccer news Football news Brazil Italy
A positive result at the Emirates Stadium would allow Lippi to set a new record of 32 matches unbeaten on the Azzurri bench, but instead he fell to his first defeat since a 1-0 in Slovenia on October 2004.
The meeting of the two sides with more World Cups than any other nation was expected to be an enthralling encounter and the match certainly lived up to the expectation.
With just four minutes gone, left-back Fabio Grosso superbly volleyed home after latching onto Andrea Pirlo's through ball, but his effort was disallowed for an incorrect offside position.
Brazil took the lead after 16 minutes when Elano combined with City team-mate Robinho to cut the defence through the middle before firing the ball beyond Gianluigi Buffon.
A counterattack 11 minutes later saw Carlos Dunga's men increased the lead. Pirlo carelessly lost possession on the edge of his own box to Robinho, who dribbled between three Azzurri defenders before unleashing a low shot past Buffon.
Elano then came close to a spectacular third for Brazil when he cut in from the right and unleashed a remarkable curler that swerved inwards to skim the far top corner.
Lippi made four changes at the interval and the Italians looked more assertive but had another goal disallowed when Luca Toni appeared to take Pirlo's deep ball down with his hand before firing past Júlio César.
César produced an excellent point-blank save to deny Toni from close range nine minutes from time after Giuseppe Rossi's cut-back from the touchline had found the striker in space inside the six-yard box.
Italy: Buffon; Zambrotta, Legrottaglie, Cannavaro, Grosso; Pirlo (Dossena 74), De Rossi (Aquilani 58), Montolivo (Camoranesi 46); Di Natale (Perrotta 46), Gilardino (Rossi 46), Pepe (Toni 46)
Brazil: Júlio César; Maicon, Lúcio, Juan (Thiago Silva 77), Marcelo; Gilberto Silva (Josué 88), Felipe Melo; Elano (Daniel Alves 69), Ronaldinho, Robinho (Júlio Baptista 88); Adriano (Pato 80)
Please subscribe to our RSS feed to receive more updates. You can also subscribe by Email and enjoy our latest posts sent directly to your inbox.
Related links:
Team
Also see:
Technorati tags:World soccer Soccer news Football news Brazil Italy
