Football World Cup 2002 / Italy

The Italian national football team at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea :

qualification

In qualification group 7, apart from Italy, only Eastern European teams were represented. Only Romania was considered a serious competitor for first place. The Italians had few difficulties and qualified undefeated as group winners for the finals.

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Italy	16: 3	20th
2	Romania	10: 7	16
3	Georgia	12:12	10
4th	Hungary	14:13	8th
5	Lithuania	3:20	2

Hungary	-	Italy		2: 2
Italy	-	Romania		3-0
Italy	-	Georgia		2-0
Romania	-	Italy		0: 2
Italy	-	Lithuania		2-0
Georgia	-	Italy		1: 2
Lithuania	-	Italy		0-0
Italy	-	Hungary		1-0

Italian contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Gianluigi Buffon	Juventus Turin	01/28/1978	4th	0	0	0	0
12	Christian Abbiati	AC Milan	07/08/1977	0	0	0	0	0
22nd	Francesco Toldo	Inter Milan	12/02/1971	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Christian Panucci	AS Roma	04/12/1973	4th	0	1	0	0
3	Paolo Maldini	AC Milan	06/26/1968	4th	0	0	0	0
4th	Francesco Coco	FC Barcelona	01/08/1977	2	0	1	0	0
5	Fabio Cannavaro	AC Parma	13.09.1973	3	0	2	0	0
13	Alessandro Nesta	Lazio Rome	March 19, 1976	3	0	0	0	0
15th	Mark Iuliano	Juventus Turin	08/12/1973	1	0	0	0	0
19th	Gianluca Zambrotta	Juventus Turin	02/19/1977	4th	0	1	0	0
23	Marco Materazzi	Inter Milan	08/19/1973	1	0	0	0	0
midfield player
6th	Cristiano Zanetti	Inter Milan	04/14/1977	3	0	1	0	0
8th	Gennaro Gattuso	AC Milan	01/09/1978	2	0	0	0	0
10	Francesco Totti	AS Roma	09/27/1976	4th	0	1	1	0
11	Cristiano Doni	Atalanta Bergamo	04/01/1973	2	0	0	0	0
14th	Luigi Di Biagio	Inter Milan	06/03/1971	1	0	0	0	0
16	Angelo Di Livio	AC Florence	07/26/1966	2	0	0	0	0
17th	Damiano Tommasi	AS Roma	05/17/1974	4th	0	1	0	0
striker
7th	Alessandro Del Piero	Juventus Turin	11/9/1974	3	1	0	0	0
9	Filippo Inzaghi	AC Milan	08/09/1973	2	0	0	0	0
18th	Marco Delvecchio	AS Roma	04/07/1973	0	0	0	0	0
20th	Vincenzo Montella	AS Roma	06/18/1974	1	0	1	0	0
21st	Christian Vieri	Inter Milan	07/12/1973	4th	4th	1	0	0
Trainer
	Giovanni Trapattoni		03/17/1939

Preliminary round

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Mexico	4: 2	7th
2	Italy	4: 3	4th
3	Croatia	2: 3	3
4th	Ecuador	2: 4	3

Two early goals from strong Christian Vieri secured Italy an opening win against Ecuador. Everything should be made clear against Croatia, which had disappointed greatly in the first game, but it turned out differently. The heavily rejuvenated Croatian team turned out to be an equal opponent, and the referee put Italy at a disadvantage with some blatant mistakes. In the end, Croatia won 2-1.

In the third game against Mexico, Italy was on the verge of losing and leaving the tournament. Mexico led 1-0 after the first half hour and Alessandro Del Piero equalized shortly before the end . The second round was literally reached at the last second.

Italy	-	Ecuador		2-0
Italy	-	Croatia		1: 2
Mexico	-	Italy		1: 1

Round of 16

The Squadra Azzurra met host South Korea in the round of 16. In 1966 the Italians lost to their northern neighbor North Korea , which was one of the biggest surprises of the final round. The game started with an early Italian goal. For a long time, the Koreans ran in vain against the stable defense until they equalized shortly before the end after a serious mistake by an Italian defender.

In extra time, Italy was again penalized by the referee. Francesco Totti was illegally sent off and there were some dubious offside decisions. However, the Azzurri missed a number of high-profile opportunities. Shortly before the extension ended, South Korea scored the winning goal with a golden goal .

South Korea

-

Italy

2: 1 n.GG.