Italy squeezed out as Cassano strikes in vain

Italy 2 Bulgaria 1

The Italians can start to prepare the tomatoes for their fallen idols when the Azzurri return home today, after being knocked out of Euro 2004 at the group stage.

The Italians can start to prepare the tomatoes for their fallen idols when the Azzurri return home today, after being knocked out of Euro 2004 at the group stage.

It was rotten vegetables that the Italian team were greeted with at the airport when they were eliminated early from the 1966 World Cup and this will come as a massive shock to those who fancied Giovanni Trapattoni's men to figure in the latter stages here in Portugal.

Instead, although they won this game thanks to Antonio Cassano's injury-time winner, they were eliminated by the fact that Sweden and Denmark drew 2-2.

The Italians had been fixated by the possibility of that result in Oporto between the Scandinavians. Uefa's system for teams finishing on level points in a group means that head-to-head results are taken into account. With points accrued and goal difference the same, on the basis of goals scored Denmark's second goal saw them through at the expense of Italy.

It left Italy to lick their wounds, much as they did after being knocked out in the second round of the last World Cup two years ago. Back then they blamed an Ecuadorian referee, but this time around Trapattoni refused to lay the blame at anyone's door.

He said: "We did a good job anyway, we did our best. We gave it all we had and the answer of the team after going behind was good. I have no suspicions over the 2-2 result and I will absolutely not take the matter further."

Other members of his squad had different opinion leading up to the game, with Gennaro Gattuso requesting there be 50 cameras at the match to determine if affairs were being fixed.

News that Sweden and Denmark had indeed come up with the result Italy least wanted came through too late to affect Italy's performance here, although claims of a conspiracy will no doubt run from Milan to Naples. When Antonio Cassano's injury-time goal went in they celebrated as if they were through but were then told what had happened and their mood was instantly deflated.

It was an extraordinarily emotional finale to an Italian campaign marked by some very flat performances. But Trapattoni did say that the result that cost his teams qualification was their very first game.

They drew 0-0 with Denmark and then went on to draw 1-1 with Sweden after being ahead for most of that match, but Trapattoni said: "The first result is always important psychologically."

Trapattoni had several changes forced upon him thanks to various indiscretions and ailments that struck his squad during their time in Portugal. Unavailable through suspension were the playmaker Francesco Totti, as well as the fiercely competitive midfielder Gattuso and Fabio Cannavaro, one of their key defenders.

Their first-choice striker Christian Vieri, had to start the game on the bench due to a knee injury.

Standing in for Cannavaro was Marco Materazzi, the former Everton defender, and it proved costly when he conceded a penalty on the brink of half-time.

The deflated Bulgarians had been knocked out by losing their first two games by a combined score of 0-7 but they belied those results by going for Italy on the counter-attack.

That policy, in rainy conditions that were more Sofia than Sorrento, paid off when Materazzi hauled down Dimitar Berbatov.

The Russian referee did not waste much time in awarding a penalty and up stepped Martin Petrov who coolly despatched the spot-kick low to Gigi Buffon's right, with the goalkeeper having gone the wrong way.

Yet Italy showed they had some fight left in them just three minutes after the break when they equalised. A fired-up Cassano received the ball from Gianluca Zambrotta and his shot thumped down off the crossbar and back out into play. The goalkeeper dropped the rebound and Simone Perrotta nudged his shot home from all of five yards.

That was the cue for endless pressure from the Italians, who also saw an Alessandro Nesta header tipped over late on but their efforts were all in vain.