Mexico vs Italy (1-2): Balotelli fires Italy home

The second Group A match in the Confederations Cup was a thriller. It had everything you want in a football match - goals, yellow cards, amazing free kicks, penalties, denied penalties and last minute drama. Italy scored late to beat the CONCACAF champions Mexico 2-1 courtesy their controversial young striker ‘Super Mario’ Balotelli.

It was Andrea Pirlo’s 100th appearance for the Azzurri and he celebrated it in style by scoring an absolute cracker of a free kick just inside the first half hour.

Just 7 minutes after Pirlo’s goal, Manchester United wonder boy Javier Hernandez fired home for Mexico from a penalty after Andrea Barzagli brought down Dos Santos inside the box.

Twelve minutes from time Mario Balotelli somehow managed to squeeze the ball past the Mexican goalkeeper Corona to rescue Italy from an embarrassing draw.

In the first half hour Italy seemed to keep better possession of the ball and made more chances. After Balotelli’s long range effort and Giaccherini’s low shot into the hands of the Corona, it seemed that Italy was dominating the match. Andreas Guardardo was given chance to change this mentality when he got an amazing through ball and he took a shot which went like a bullet but it only ended up rattling the crossbar

Pirlo went down inside the penalty box when the clock reached 25 minutes and was not given a sure penalty though he got his revenge when he scored from 25 yards.

Ten players of the Italian squad were either from Juventus or AC Milan, the lone exception was Daniele de Rossi who was from Roma. While Mexican midfielder Torrado was playing his 141st match.

The second half was not as action packed as the first but it did have its moments. Right after the restart Pirlo got another free kick which was deflected to Montolivo who failed to score from close range.

Italy was denied yet another penalty when Balotelli was pulled down by Hector Monero though he also got his revenge when he scored later on in the match.

Seeing that Italy was dominating Mexico chose complete defense rather than any offence so that they could keep more possession of the ball.

Other than one or two attacks Mexico didn’t cause that much trouble in the starting of the second half though in one of the attacks they did get a free kick which was headed narrowly wide from Gerado Flores. After Balotelli’s goal Mexico badly needed a goal from somewhere and they tried hard but Mexico failed to trouble Buffon. Italy secured an important win which enhances their chance of qualifying for the knockout stages.

Italy – Buffon, Chiellini, De Sciglio, Barzagli, Abate, Marchisio (68 Cerci), De Rossi, Montolivo, Pirlo, Giaccherini (88 Aquilani), Balotelli (86 Gilardino)

Substitutes- Cerci, Aquilani, Gilardino, Sirigu, El Shaarawy

Mexico- Corona, Javier Rodriguez, Aquino (53 Mier), Moreno, Flores, Salcido, Torrado, Zavala (86 Jimenez), Gurdado, dos Santos, Hernandez

Substitutes- Mier, Jimenez, Reyes, Guilliermo Ochoa, Meza
Final Score: Italy 2:1 Mexico ( 27` Pirlo, 34` (PG) Hernandez, 78` Balotelli)