Portugal 1 - 2 Italy
Italy won the fifth consecutive match against Portugal who have not defeated the Azzurri since 1976. Trapattoni's squad emerged as the 2-1 winners from a good and entertaining match.
Portugal started very well and on their first real opportunity they took the lead. A brilliant Rui Costa assist found Nuno Valente all alone inside the penalty area, and cooly placed the ball past Buffon, who was captaining Italy for the first time.
Pauleta could have added another 5 minutes later but his shot from the edge of the area went just wide.
Italy were unable to react after Portugal's goal, and to see the first chance for the azzurri we had to wait till the 27th minute a great move by Totti gave the Italian number 10 space to shoot from the 20 metres but his deflected shot grazed the bar.
Pancaro wasted a good opportunity two minutes later, following a corner scramble the ball fell on the feet of the Milan full-back but his shot went wide.
Portugal were always dangerous when going forward and in the 32nd minute, Simao found himself all alone inside the penalty area, but his header went high.
In the 38th minute, Totti's shot from the edge of the penalty area went wide after a good move by the Italian team. However the equalizer arrived a minute later when Vieri headed in from close range a quickly taken free kick by Totti from the right hand side to end the first half on 1-1.
The second half saw the usual numerous substitutions take centre stage and inevitebly effected the whole match. The game kept on the fast pace, but the goal scoring opportunities decreaed drastically as the match became more balanced.
Substitute Miccoli found the goal that eventually became the winner when straight from a corner, the small forward scored his first goal in six matches for the Azzurri.
Portugal tried to react, but the young players that had substituted the veterans Figo and company, were unable to get past the Italian defence which held well till the last minute to give Italy a good win ahead of the European Championship campaign.
Source: Soccerage
