Prandelli and Chiellini said it: you are going to see another Italy in the field. They meant it!
The National Italian team inaugurated the World Cup 2014 [2] in Brazil with a bang. On Saturday the 12th, in Manaus, Italy played their  first game of round D against England. A fearful rival but the “Azzurri” of Cesare Prandelli did not disappoint the fans and the success in Brazil confirmed the tradition of the positive results against the English who have not beaten Italy in official matches since 1977.

A difficult start for Italy, which in the first minutes of the game struggled on the accelerations of the English lions. Giorgio Chiellini, who is not a fullback player, really suffered from the attacks of Raheem Sterling and Danny Wellbeck who scared the Italian goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu three times within the first 10 minutes.

Convincing center field. Nothing to say about Italy’s center field. A tireless Candreva pushed in search of the shot, Marco Verratti never lost the ball and Andrea Pirlo acted as a movie director having the perfect vision of the whole game. And Claudio Marchisio scored (35’) with a harsh kick on the right corner that Joe Hart could not get.

Lack of attention. Two minutes took England to even out the score (37’). Italy’s defense let down its guard and Wayne Rooney squeezed in on the left serving as perfect assist to Daniel Sturridge who scored without any complication in the defense area. Italy reacted almost immediately with a lob of Balotelli (45’) stopped by Phil Jagielka on the goal line.

England strongly restarted the game during the second half of the match but the “Azzurri” punished the English lions: Darmian passed the ball to Candreva who, with a cross, served Mario Balotelli who, with a wonderful header, brought Italy ahead of the game: 2-1.

England tries again. The English tried the rematch. Rooney, the star of the Mancherster United team, tried out twice to score a goal, but to no avail. Same bad luck struck Sturridge.

Baines makes Italy shiver. 15 minutes before the final whistle, Leighton Baines frightened Italy with a penalty shot magically rejected by Sirigu.

A bit arduous end that forced Prandelli to make a few changes and insert into the game Thiago Motta, Ciro Immobile e Marco Parolo who helped their teammates a lot during the final minutes. Within the 5 minutes before the game end, an amazing penalty shot by Andrea Pirlo nearly achieved the third goal, unfortunatelly hitting the crossbeam.

Overall it was a great start for Italy, despite the environmental conditions and the absence of Gianluigi Buffon, due to the strain of his left ankle. On Friday the “Azzurri” will face Costa Rica.

Make us dream again, guys!