Italy beat 10-man Czechs 2-0 to go through

 

 

 

HAMBURG: Goals from substitutes Marco Materazzi and Filippo Inzaghi earned Italy a 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic on Thursday and a place in the last 16 of the World Cup.   

 

The Czechs, who played the whole of the second half with 10 men after Jan Polak was sent off for a second yellow card just before the interval, went out of the tournament.   

 

Materazzi, who replaced injured defender Alessandro Nesta in the 17th minute, scored the first nine minutes later with a header.

 

Inzaghi, who came on in the second half for Alberto Gilardino, added a second three minutes from time.   

 

Italy finished on top of Group E with seven points and meet the runners-up from Group F in Kaiserslautern on Monday.

 

That group, comprising Brazil, Australia, Croatia and Japan play their final first round games later on Thursday.

 

 

Marco Materazzi of Italy was named Man of the Match by FIFA's Technical Study Group.

 

 

Italy
Gianlugi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta, Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro (capt), Fabio Grosso, Mauro Camoranesi, Simone Perrotta, Andrea Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso, Francesco Totti, Alberto Gilardino   
Coach: Marcello Lippi       

 

Czech Republic
Petr Cech, Zdenek Grygera, Radoslav Kovac, David Rozehnal, Marek Jankulovski, Karel Poborsky, Pavel Nedved (capt), Tomas Rosicky, Jan Polak, Jaroslav Plasil, Milan Baros
Coach: Karel Bruckner

 

Referee: Benito Archundia (Mexico)