| Luca Toni broke his goal drought after nine months to earn a 1-1 draw in Greece that sets a new Italy record for Marcello Lippi. By avoiding defeat in this friendly against the Euro 2004 winners, he set a 31-match unbeaten run on the Italy bench, beating the previous record of 30 set by double World Cup winner Vittorio Pozzo. He had to do without the injured Antonio Di Natale, Gigi Buffon, Marco Amelia, Alberto Aquilani, Andrea Pirlo, Gianluca Zambrotta and Fabio Quagliarella, so Morgan De Sanctis took the gloves for the first time since October 2005. Giuseppe Rossi received his first start for the Azzurri as part of a new trident with Luca Toni and Mauro Camoranesi. There were familiar faces in the home side, such as Genoa defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos and former Roma man Traianos Dellas. Italy wore their blue strip so Greece were all in white for their first meeting in over 20 years. Curiously, five of the Azzurri's starting XI play their club football abroad. After eight minutes Daniele De Rossi's corner was cleared to Gennaro Gattuso on the edge of the box and his impressive low volley forced Tzorvas into a fingertip save! On the resulting set piece another shot was deflected and Tzorvas smothered Rossi's point-blank range effort. At the other end Mantzios drilled wide from distance, but Camoranesi was booked for a late tackle on former Inter player Giorgios Karagounis. Tzorvas came off his line to luck a chipped Camoranesi pass off Toni's head, but Katsouranis got between the central defenders to nod off target. Rossi went on a strong run into the box and the ball was cleared back to Montolivo in the D, but he hesitated and allowed the Greek defence to close him down. Toni just failed to get his outstretched foot to a De Rossi free kick towards the back post. Moments later Toni dribbled through two defenders only to scuff well wide. There were penalty appeals for a Gattuso handling offence, but the ball ricocheted on to his arm off his knee, so it was involuntary. The move continued and Mantzios put the ball in the back of the net in a clear offside position. Rossi went on a mazy run before he was pushed over by Papastathopoulos outside the box. The 21-year-old took the free kick himself and hit the wall. In first half stoppages, Rossi's snapshot was well smothered by the goalkeeper. Lippi made two changes at the break, Nicola Legrottaglie and Simone Pepe replacing Giorgio Chiellini and Montolivo. This moved Italy to a 4-4-2 with Camoranesi and Pepe out wide. Toni came so close to breaking his goal drought that has lasted since February within seconds of the restart. Rossi threaded through to send him clear down the left flank and his angled drive was turned round the post by Tzorvas' foot. Rossi then went on a slalom through the Greek shirts and rolled across for Pepe's low shot caught by the goalkeeper. Camoranesi's rocket from 25 metres was palmed on to the post by one strong hand as Tzorvas flew to get the ball, eventually scrambling it out for a corner. Italy had clearly changed gear for the second half. However, it was Greece who took the lead against the run of play. Tziolis threaded through for substitute Gekas to spring the offside trap and smack his finish over De Sanctis. The Galatasaray goalkeeper did better when getting down to catch a Basinas free kick that pierced the wall. Italy equalised and it was with a relieved Toni, who got away from his marker to get a looping header on to De Rossi's free kick. It floated into the top corner to end a drought that had lasted for 697 minutes of international football. His last goal was in a friendly win over Portugal in February. Toni almost turned provider for a wonderful team move, as he dummied a shot and rolled back for the unmarked Camoranesi's strike from eight yards that Tzorvas palmed over the bar. There were three more substitutions, as Alessandro Gamberini, Alberto Gilardino and Christian Maggio came on for Fabio Cannavaro (who passed the captain's armband to Gattuso), Camoranesi and Toni. It was a special occasion for Maggio, who made his debut. Italy were fortunate Salpigghidis horribly scuffed a Liberopoulos cutback wide, while Gilardino accidentally charged down Fabio Grosso's free kick. Rossi made way for Vincenzo Iaquinta in the final 20 minutes. Katsouranis blasted over on the counter-attack and there was a scare when Pepe's backpass to Grosso was intercepted, but as the move continued the offside flag rescued Italy.
Iaquinta had the chance to win it in the final minute, but his ambitious acrobatic attempt was off target.
| 
