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| | Paloschi to the rescue |
Tuesday 15 July, 2008 |
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Milan young gun Alberto Paloschi saved Italy’s Under-19 side from defeat against Greece in their European Championship opener last night.
Italy are in Group B along with hosts the Czech Republic, England and Greece and they kicked off their campaign with a tricky test against the Greeks who were runners-up last time around.
Francesco Rocca’s young Italians won all their games in qualification for the tournament but they found themselves behind in Mlada Boleslav.
Michail Pavlis opened the scoring for Greece on 23 minutes with an impeccable finish to convert Sotiris Ninis’s inch-perfect through ball.
Italy fought back in the second period but were repeatedly frustrated in front of goal.
Newcastle United boy Fabio Zamblera thought he had scored when he poked home in a scramble after an effort from Cisco Roma product Andrea Mazzarani, but it was disallowed.
Just as defeat looked inevitable, Sampdoria’s Andrea Poli was felled in the box by Kyriakos Papadopoulos and the referee pointed to the spot.
Milan youngster Paloschi took responsibility and calmly struck the ball down the middle to level at the death.
The next test for Italy is a crunch match against England on Thursday. The English were beaten 2-0 by the Czech Republic and need to win to stay in the competition.
Italy Under-19: Fiorillo; Darmian, Bruscagin, Tagliani, Gentili; Mazzarani, Poli, Bonaventura; Forestieri, Paloschi, Zamblera
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