Gianluigi Buffon, hanging in mid-air as if this were a wire routine in a kung-fu movie, denied Adrian Mutu from the penalty spot to hand Italy a lifeline. It was a save that defied belief, writes Dominic Fifield.
Gianluigi Buffon was acknowledged by Petr Cech recently as “the greatest goalkeeper in the world”. Nine minutes from the end of the match against Romania, the Juventus veteran justified that reputation, denying Adrian Mutu from the penalty spot.
His was a save to defy belief. The Italians were sensing injustice before the award of the spot-kick, Luca Toni having been denied what appeared a legitimate first-half goal, and they were apoplectic that Christian Panucci was penalised for grappling with Daniel Niculae. Although Mutu’s shot was directed too centrally for comfort, it was still powerfully struck. Buffon, hanging in mid-air as if this were a wire routine in a kung-fu movie, had sprung to his left but still managed to stretch his right hand to block and touch the ball on to his foot and away. Italy had their lifeline. Mutu, also denied by the 30-year-old when through on goal early on, sank his head in his hands in despair.
There were some grounds for Italy’s grievance. Toni looked onside when flicking in from close range just before the interval. To see that decision go against the Italians, and then the penalty in the final exchanges, conjured memories of the furores that greeted their elimination from the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004. “The referee’s performance was not at the highest level, unlike that of the players,” said Donadoni. “It has not been his finest day.”
This was too thrilling a contest to be tarnished by controversy, made all the more exhilarating by utterly incompetent defending. Romania shed the ultra-defensive approach which had stifled the French and revelled in a more cavalier mode. Mutu might have scored early, only for Buffon to excel.
The outstanding Cristian Chivu saw a free-kick flick off Panucci and rebound from a post. It said everything about the Romanians’ flamboyance that when their defensive midfielder Mirel Radoi was carried bloodied from the turf — he needs eye surgery and has a broken nose — and was replaced by Nicolae Dica, who operated as an extra striker.
They were slick in the pass and across the turf, their midfield under Chivu’s orchestration a constant source of consternation for Italy, although the World Cup holders also prospered amid the gung-ho rhythm. It took a defensive aberration to ease Romania ahead. Gianluca Zambrotta mystifyingly attempted to nod Cosmin Contra’s free-kick to the keeper only for Mutu to sprint in on the full-back’s blind side to gather and ram his country’s first goal of the tournament high into the net.
Zambrotta, who completed his transfer from Barcelona to Milan earlier in the day, saw his mistake cruelly dissected on the big screens, but the comical nature of the defending ensured he was permitted instant relief.
Within a minute Andrea Pirlo’s corner had been nodded back across goal by Giorgio Chiellini at the far post and Panucci scuttled in beyond static defenders to tap in Italy’s equaliser.
They had long threatened. Toni looped two headers wide, his radar awry, and it took a staggering interception from Paul Codrea virtually on the goal-line to deny Simone Perrotta. Daniele De Rossi was left perplexed that his own cushioned header was somehow palmed aside by the keeper.
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
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