June 17th

Italy Show the Class to advance to the Top

The first second round match of Group B, Chile vs Austria, at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard Saint-Etiennne, appeared to display a series of rest-less sweating turnovers, though Chileans were the better side in the means of swiftness and tecnique.

With no goals seen in the first half, Chile suddenly seized a chance, after Austrians showed much more eagerness in the early minutes in the second half, when Ivan Zamorano headed towards the Austrian goal-mouth. The goalkeeper Michael Konsel superbly reacted to block it but, only managed to give it to Marcelo Salas who pushed it home just over the line.

However, Austrians came back miraculously at the very last minute of the game, like the previous match against Cameroon, as a late-comer Ivica Vastic dribbled to make the score even.

Meanwhile at Montpellier, Italy beat Cameroon with fine three goals, including Christian Vieri's double. Francesco Moriero and Luigi Di Biagio, happily joined in the starting eleven, proved their class, and the notable first appearance of Alessandro Del Piero came at 17th minute in the second half. For Cameroon, the goalkeeper Jacques Songo'o and 21 years old Joseph-Desire Job impressed the audience, while they gave away with 4 cautions and 1 sent-off to retreat totally.

Scorers

[C] Salas:70min.

[A] Vastic:92min.

Margas

Reyes

Schottel

Feiersinger

Rfeffer

Villarroel(Castaneda:67min.)

Acuna

Estay(Sierra:56min.)

Parraguez

Rojas

Mahlich

Pfeifenberger

Cerny(Schopp:46min.)

Haas(Vastic:73min.)

Kuhbauer(Herzog:46min.)

Wetl

Zamorano(Capt.)

Salas

Scorers

[I] Di Biagio:7min., Vieri:65min.,89min.

Nesta

Costacurta

Cannavaro

Maldini(Capt.)

Njanka

Song

Wome

Di Biagio

Albertini(Di Matteo:62min.)

Moriero(Di Livio:83min.)

D.Baggio

Ndo

Olembe

Kalla

Mboma(Eto'o:66min.)

Angibeaud

Vieri

R.Baggio(Del Piero:65min.)

Ipoua(Job:46min.)

Omam Biyik(Capt.)(Tchami:66min.)