Slovenia add to Azzurri blues

Italy 0-1 Slovenia

Enemy within
For the Italians the loss was made even more galling by the fact that midfield player Sebastjan Cimirotic, who scored Slovenia’s decisive goal on 31 minutes, plays in Serie B for US Lecce.

Cimirotic decisive
Cimirotic's goal came when he cut inside AS Roma defender Christian Panucci to fire past goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. The closest the hosts came to an equaliser was through Cristiano Doni, whose second-half effort crashed back off the crossbar.

Italy flounder
Italy, who were without Internazionale FC striker Christian Vieri and Roma star Francesco Totti, struggled to fashion any meaningful goalscoring chances.

Trouble flared
However, the gloss was taken off the victory following some unsavoury off-the-pitch scenes. With the game played in the border city of Trieste, the visitors brought a large contingent of supporters and trouble flared at the Nereo Rocco stadium.

Riot police
A group of Slovenian fans hurled objects on to the pitch in the first half and then fought with riot police who had entered the visiting fans’ section to identify troublemakers. For the home faithful, it was just another miserable chapter in a continuing tale of woe.

Low morale
With the start of the Serie A and B seasons delayed due to crippling financial problems and rows over television rights, the Azzurri hoped for a morale-boosting win as coach Giovanni Trapattoni's prepares to lead the team into EURO 2004™ qualifying.

Challenging task
But Trapattoni now has the challenging task of rebuilding the team's confidence ahead of their first Group 9 qualifier against Azerbaijan on 7 September, followed by further matches against Finland, Wales and Yugoslavia. Slovenia will aim to produce equally impressive results against France, Cyprus, Israel and Malta in Group 1.