Author: Soorya G
Casadei and Leonardo scored twice in a thrilling encounter
Two of the tournament’s main favorites, Brazil and Senegal, suffered shocking defeats in their respective openers, as Italy managed to surprise the South Americans, while a plucky Japanese team overcame Senegal in a close game. Argentina played some great soccer, especially in the match between Brazil and Italy, with some of the best talent in the world taking part in an absolutely thrilling contest. The Italians managed to open up a three-goal lead at the start of the game, but the young Brazilians couldn’t overcome it and in the end the Azzuri U-20s took three important points, especially considering that the group was called the “Group of Death”.
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The Italians took control of possession at the start of the game, while trying to beat the Brazilians with their technical ability. However, the team’s individual approach didn’t seem to work, but in fact led to two excellent chances for the Seleção’s U-20s. The Brazilians failed to capitalize on their early chances, and Italian defender Gabriele Guarino even made a wonderful interception on one occasion, denying the Brazilians what would surely have been the opening goal. Cesare Casadei also had a free-kick from a threatening position in the first five minutes, but couldn’t keep it on target.
The Italians, perhaps realizing that a technical approach wouldn’t produce satisfactory results, switched to a counter-attacking system, with the midfielders and wingers making long throws to the front line. The change of tactics worked almost immediately, when Riccardo Turicchia received the ball from Casadei and laid it into the path of Matteo Prati, who scored Italy’s first goal of the game – 1-0 (11 mins).
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Brazilian stars Giovani and Marcos Leonardo tried to get the equalizer, but failed. Credit must also be given to the Italian defenders, who were not only solid in defense for most of the game, but also made some extremely intelligent fouls to stifle the Brazilians’ attacking sequences before they could bear fruit. Giovani had another solid chance to score, but chose to complicate matters and the score remained unchanged; not for long, as Brazilian goalkeeper Sebastiano Desplanches’ mistake from an Italy corner resulted in Casadei tapping into the open goal – 2-0 (28 mins).
The Italian would convert his goal into two just ten minutes later, when his brilliant run into the Brazilian box resulted in a defensive error by the five-time champions, giving Italy a penalty. Casadei calmly slotted home to increase the gap to three goals – 3-0. Tommaso Baldanzi could have scored the fourth just before half-time, but Desplanches managed to get his fingertips on the ball to make an incredible save.
Despite a disappointing first half, the Brazilians came back stronger in the second period, but only managed to open the scoring with around twenty minutes remaining. Marcos Leonardo scored amid the chaos in the Italian penalty area to breathe life into the contest, and scored again in the 87th minute to set up a thrilling finale. However, Italy managed to hold on to their lead until the final whistle, taking three important points: 3-2.
In another match in this group, Japan narrowly beat Senegal 1-0.
Brazil face the Dominican Republic in their next game, while Italy take on Nigeria.
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In Group A, hosts Argentina beat Uzbekistan 2-1 and New Zealand beat Guatemala 1-0.
In Group B, Slovakia beat Fiji 4-0 with 37 shots (12 on target), against just one attempt by their opponents. In the same quartet, the USA won 1-0 against Ecuador with a goal in the 94th minute.
In Group C, Colombia and Nigeria were stronger than Israel and the Dominican Republic respectively – 2:1