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Luca Toni, Fabio Cannavaro and Fabio Quagliarella secured a confident 3-1 friendly victory over Portugal on Marco Borriello's Italy debut.
This warm-up friendly for two teams competing in Euro 2008 was played in one of the stadiums that will be used in the tournament in Zurich. Gigi Buffon, Gennaro Gattuso and Marco Materazzi were injured, while Raffaele Palladino was tested in wide midfield. Italy debuted their new jersey for the competition.
Portugal had the first chance, a relatively harmless looping header from Inter signing Nuno Maniche plucked by Marco Amelia.
The Azzurri hit the back of the net after five minutes with Andrea Pirlo's rising strike from just inside the area, but the referee controversially disallowed it, claiming he had handled Gianluca Zambrotta's cross from the left. Replays suggest the ball bounced off his chest.
Massimo Ambrosini's glancing header from a Pirlo free kick was well held by Ricardo, but Antonio Di Natale was inches away from tapping in Massimo Oddo's cross.
The Portuguese fought back and Bruno Alves was allowed a free header at the near post, nodding the corner over the bar. Ricardo Quaresma set up Deco to fire wide, though in this case there did appear to be a handling offence.
A splendid team move almost gave Italy the advantage on 27 minutes. Raffaele Palladino cut in from the right and Toni's dummy left it for Di Natale, whose right-foot first-time strike was fingertipped round the post. From the resulting corner Daniele De Rossi nodded wide.
Zambrotta limped off with an upper thigh problem soon after and made way for fellow 2006 World Cup winner Fabio Grosso. An Oddo sliding tackle closed down Ronaldo in the box, then launched a Di Natale counter that bounced awkwardly for Toni clear on goal.
A Makukula snapshot skimmed the far post in their best chance of the game so far, but on 41 minutes Amelia got down well to parry a fierce Ronaldo free kick.
Italy threatened with a fine move between Di Natale, Toni, Palladino and Pirlo, but Quaresma was one-on-one on the counter and his pass to an unmarked Ronaldo was too long.
In first half stoppages the deadlock was finally broken. Grosso got down the left flank and his cross found Toni to slide in the finish from six yards. The goalkeeper, Ricardo Carvalho and Bruno Alves all failed to cut out the danger and Toni was alert at the back post.
Manchester United man Nani was introduced in the second half, but Italy had another good chance with Toni's header well over.
There was a fantastic opportunity as a Pirlo pass over the top found Di Natale, closed down for Toni and a deflection stopped him tipping it over the line. From the resulting corner kick Pirlo thought he had his name on the scoresheet after all, a right-foot volley deflected off Fabio Cannavaro to bounce past Ricardo at the near post. However, the goal was later credited to Cannavaro, so another disappointment for Pirlo.
Roberto Donadoni made his first tactical changes, throwing on Alessandro Gamberini of Fiorentina in place of Andrea Barzagli and Simone Perrotta for Roma teammate De Rossi.
It was a very open and entertaining game now as Ricardo performed a brilliant reaction save on Di Natale, who ran on to Palladino's pass with a smart diagonal run.
Bosingwa required a splendid challenge to stop Di Natale completing his combination with Toni and on the counter Cannavaro cut short Ronaldo's progress.
More magnificent Di Natale-Grosso interplay got the crowd on their feet and Portugal scrambled it out for a corner, from which Cannavaro crossed to the unmarked Palladino at the back post. The Juventus youngster chested and volleyed on to the bar thanks to Ricardo's fingertip save! Had it not been for Ricardo, that would've been one of the goals of the season.
Nani went on a slalom in the Azzurri area, but Oddo's muscle and a sliding Cannavaro tackle managed to close him down without conceding a penalty.
Marco Borriello made his senior Italy debut, the 20th player to get his first cap under Donadoni, earning the call after netting 12 goals for Genoa this season.
Oddo charged down a Cristiano Ronaldo attempt and Amelia smothered the Ribeiro follow-up. Hugo Almeida just failed to make contact with a diving header on Jorge Ribeiro's cross, while Bruno Alves dived in to stop Perrotta from netting.
Borriello had a great chance to make his debut with a goal, but when he chested down a corner kick he didn't react quick enough and the defence was able to clear.
Portugal were threatening a goal and broke through with their best performer on the night, Quaresma. A free kick was taken quickly and Nani's low pass across the box was dummied to reach Quaresma's strike under the bar.
Less than 60 seconds later - and with his first touch! - Italy restored their two-goal cushion with Fabio Quagliarella. Ambrosini chopped a cross to the back post for Di Natale's volley backwards, Perrotta headed it on for Quagliarella to volley under the bar from five yards.
Marco Cassetti replaced the impressive Oddo for the final 10 minutes and almost immediately created another goal for Quagliarella that some desperate defending denied.
Amelia dived to his right to palm away a fantastic Ronaldo free kick from 25 metres, but the Azzurri notched up a sixth consecutive victory.
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