Holders Italy stroll through

Holders Italy could only manage a goalless draw in the second leg of their UEFA European Under-21 Championship play-off against Poland but still ran out comfortable 5-2 aggregate winners.

Second draw
This was only Italy's second draw in eleven games since Claudio Gentile took over, with eight wins and a loss coming in the Italian legend's other nine matches in charge.

Among the favourites
The Italians, who beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in the final of the 2000 competition in Slovakia, have now lost just one of their last 23 matches and will be among the favourites to win the event in an as yet undecided venue next year.

Maccarone denied
The hard work had already been done with a resounding 5-2 win in Warsaw and Italy were content to stroke the ball around in the opening period. Massimo Maccarone saw a fine effort come back off the post before AC Parma's Marco Marchionni picked up a nasty gash to his right knee after colliding with an advertising hoarding.

Same pattern
The second half script followed the first with Italy firmly in control of things. The hosts had their chances but could not find a way past Mielcarz in the Poland goal.