Italy plays out scrappy draw

Press, 2 June 1986, Page 24

Italy plays out scrappy draw

NZPA-Reuter Mexico City

Italy scorned the sparkling soccer which led to its ultimate triumph in Spain four years ago when it began its 1986 World Cup campaign with a scrappy 1-1 draw against Bulgaria yesterday.

The champagne football that had been hoped for never materialised and the thirteenth finals were launched in the Aztec Stadium with something more reminiscent of stale beer.

Indeed the only spectators happy with the outcome of this game will be the other two group A nations — the 1978 winner, Argentina, and South Korea.

Italy fielded five survivors from its victorious side of four years ago and the striker, Sandro Altobelli, who claimed the third goal in the 3-1 win against West Germany in the 1982 final, was first to get off the mark in 1986 when he opened the scoring after 43 minutes.

But the Bulgarians, who had all but disappeared after Altobelli’s opener, scored a stunning equaliser six minutes from time when Nasko Sirakov rose above the Italian defence to steer a perfectly directed header past the goal-keeper, Giovanni Galli. Altobelli’s performance was the one bright spot in an otherwise disappointing game and his instinct in front of goal suggests Italy may yet bounce back from this setback as

it did four years ago. Italy went in front when, following a foul on Bruno Conti, Antonio di Gennaro swung over an outswinging free kick from the right and Altobelli squeezed between two defenders to beat the Bulgarian goal-keeper, Borislav Mikhailov, with a nicely struck side-footed volley. With Paolo Rossi, the hero of Spain, sitting for? lornly among the 100,000plus spectators, Altobelli turned in a devastating display aided by a new-

comer, Giuseppe Galderisi.

Galderisi has looked sharp ever since he arrived in Mexico and he was only centimetres away from giving Italy an eleventh-minute lead with a stinging right foot shot which flew narrowly over the crossbar. Altobelli, who could have had a hat-trick, suffered a similar fate midway through the first half when his rising shot on the run beat Mikhailov only to skim the woodwork.