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Simone Pepe and Giuseppe Rossi made good debuts as Italy grabbed a point in their goalless draw away to Bulgaria.
Marcello Lippi made wholesale changes, as he was without the injured Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Pirlo and Mauro Camoranesi, leaving Alex Del Piero, Andrea Barzagli and Antonio Cassano behind. Simone Pepe got his international debut to start alongside Udinese teammate Antonio Di Natale and Fiorentina's Alberto Gilardino. Riccardo Montolivo got his first competitive cap at senior level, preferred to Simone Perrotta.
The average age of the Azzurri line-up was 27, though Italy had never won in Sofia.
Gilardino had a great chance after three minutes when a scuffed defensive clearance turned into an assist for Gilardino, but the goalkeeper managed to get a foot to it from six yards, avoiding a penalty and a goal. From the resulting corner Giorgio Chiellini just failed to make contact from two yards.
Gilardino and Pepe got in each others' way to meet an Andrea Dossena cross, but Fabio Cannavaro charged down a Dimitar Berbatov overhead kick. Gila was flagged offside as he tried to get on the end of a scuffed Di Natale effort and Gennaro Gattuso's strike was deflected out for a corner.
Chiellini went into the book for halting a Berbatov counter and Martin Petrov blasted the resulting free kick over the bar. Bulgaria lost Wagner to a muscular problem, making way for Ivan Ivanov.
A poor Dossena backpass almost let Martin Petrov through with nobody between him and the goal, but Marco Amelia rushed out to clear midway up his own half.
After the restart Georgiev scuffed a shot wide and curled a free kick well over, but Montolivo's chipped pass was cleared between Gilardino and Pepe. Dimitar Ivankov plucked a corner kick off the head of Chiellini, but moments later Gilardino's hair skimmed a fierce Pepe set-piece and any contact may well have beaten the Bulgarian goalkeeper from six yards.
Lippi further lowered the average age of the squad by giving Giuseppe Rossi his senior debut for Di Natale and Simone Perrotta replacing the ineffective Montolivo.
Rossi made an immediate impact and threaded through for Gilardino, who got in front of his marker, but was put under pressure and drilled just past the near post. It was to be Gila's final contribution, as he made way for Luca Toni.
A screamer of a half-volley from Daniele De Rossi dipped on to the roof of the net, missing the crossbar by a matter of inches.
Pepe was furious when he burst into the box only to be called back for a handling offence, as replays showed the ball struck his chest.
Amelia had to make his first save after 87 minutes, at full stretch to fingertip a Yankov snapshot off target from 25 metres. The Palermo goalkeeper also got back up to snatch the loose ball away from Berbatov.
De Rossi's free kick whipped inches wide of the near post with Ivankov beaten. There was bad news, as Toni was booked for a late tackle in stoppages and will therefore be suspended for Wednesday's match with Montenegro.
Ivankov came tearing out for a shaky clearance as Pepe ran on to a smart cross-field Rossi pass on the counter-attack.
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