Vieri goal rescues Italy

Italy were held 1-1 by Turkey in an international friendly after Christian Vieri struck seven minutes before half-time to cancel out Emre Belözoglu's opener.

Trapattoni under-fire
The result was inconclusive for Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni, whose side lie in third place in EURO 2004™ qualifying Group 9 behind leaders Wales and second-placed Yugoslavia.

Midfield dominance
Emre's long-range strike just before the half-hour mark to open the scoring capped an early period of excellent play by the visitors, who gave the home side's midfield the runaround with their neat passing game.

Vieri on target
But Italy, whose next EURO 2004™ encounter is against Finland at the end of March, reacted quickly, Vieri rounding goalkeeper Ömer Çatkiç to slide the ball in for the equaliser after 38 minutes. Two minutes from time, Filippo Inzaghi had a golden chance to win the game, going one-on-one with Ömer, but his shot went wide of the post.

Less clarity
Trapattoni made several substitutions at the interval, probably with half an eye on the big Serie A games this weekend including the Milan derby and Juventus FC versus Bologna FC. Inzaghi and Massimo Ambrosini replaced Inter's Vieri and Di Biagio, while Inter's Francesco Toldo came on for Buffon in goal. It made little difference to the balance of the match, which lost the pace and clarity of the first half.

Late chances
Turkey came close to breaking the deadlock when a perfectly-curved pass by Cihan Haspolatli found Ilhan ten metres out but his volley went wide. Less than a minute later Italy's Marco Di Vaio - who had replaced Alessandro Del Piero in attack -came even closer, controlling the ball just outside the area and dribbling past the defence only to blast over.