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A stunning Marco Di Vaio strike enabled an experimental Italy side to beat Adrian Mutu's Romania.
Italy lost their unbeaten record in 2003 by losing 3-1 to Poland on Wednesday, but that match marked the international debuts of Antonio Cassano, Marco Marchionni and Fabio Bazzani.
Giovanni Trapattoni experimented with a new tactic for this encounter, adopting Roma's 4-3-1-2 system with Francesco Totti backing Cassano and Sampdoria striker Bazzani.
Gianluca Zambrotta also returned to his old position on the right side of midfield, momentarily leaving behind the left-back role that has served him well during the last year, while Damiano Tommasi earned a surprise start.
Giallorossi defender Cristian Chivu was out with a shoulder injury, but Adrian Mutu made his return to the Peninsula.
The early play was characterised by slide-rule passes to spring the offside trap. Totti gathered a long Christian Panucci ball forward after eight minutes, but Lobont performed a fine save to palm out at the near post.
On the resulting corner kick Bazzani's header skimmed the woodwork with the 'keeper beaten.
Cassano had the chance to take advantage of a mistake from the Romanian shot-stopper, but his follow-up effort was too weak.
Italy slowly increased the pressure and Totti's intelligent pass found Bazzani only for another fine one-handed Lobont save to keep him out.
The three Azzurri forwards repeatedly switched places in order to confuse the Romanian defence and find room.
Totti again charged into the box on 20 minutes, but tried to set up his club teammate Cassano and allowed the Ajax goalkeeper to intercept.
There was a good team move on 28 minutes. Totti and Massimo Oddo combined, but Lobont performed three successive reaction saves on the Roma captain's volley and Bazzani's follow-up.
Romania also went very close to the opener soon after, as a corner was not cleared effectively and Daniel Pancu's fierce daisycutter skimmed the far post.
It was an open game and Cassano's splendid right foot volley whistled past the crossbar, while Mutu outpaced Fabio Cannavaro but found Francesco Toldo ready to gather.
Trap made three half-time changes, bringing in Christian Abbiati, Massimo Ambrosini and Marco Di Vaio.
Within the opening minutes of the second period Simone Inzaghi, Marchionni and debutante Marcello Castellini also came on. The Parma defender earns his first cap at the age of 30. Fabio Cannavaro's departure left the captain's armband to Totti, while Zambrotta returned to the left flank.
Abbiati has not played at all in Serie A this season for Milan, but made a fine save on Raducanu's powerful effort from outside the box.
The deadlock was eventually broken by one of the substitutes, Marco Di Vaio. The Juventus man sprung the offside trap on a Totti lifted pass, but then managed to volley in a low drive past Lobont.
It was a very difficult finish as he controlled the ball and redirected it in one movement, always keeping his eye on the incoming pass and not even glancing towards the goal.
Romania fought back and Abbiati performed a stunning flying save on Dumitru's effort as it curled towards the top corner.
Di Vaio really should have made it two soon after, but he ran on to Simone Inzaghi's low cross and fired straight at the goalkeeper.
The Lazio striker took matters into his own hands moments later and turned a bicycle-kick wide.
Milan star Andrea Pirlo took over from Totti in a deeper midfield role. The new arrival almost doubled Italy's lead with a wonderful team move. Di Vaio and Zambrotta combined on the left flank, but Pirlo's finish was weak enough for Lobont to recover.
Abbiati was again called in the final minutes to parry away a deflected Mutu free kick, but overall the Chelsea star was kept relatively quiet.
The Romanian shot-stopper was also tested with a desperate rush off his line to kick the ball away from Di Vaio.
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