Despite the extra day of recovery, Uruguay were
forced to defend early in the third-fourth place play-off with Giorgio
Chiellini glancing a header narrowly wide after a good delivery from
Alessandro Diamanti.
Minutes later, Daniele de Rossi produced a
fine pass to set De Sciglio on the flank, with the latter supplying a
dangerous low ball into the box, allowing Antonio Candreva to fire a
tame shot at Fernando Musera in the best of the opening exchanges.
But
Italy continued to pose a few problems for La Celeste, and were
deservedly ahead halfway through the first period, though who would
actually be credited with the goal provided a bit of controversy and a
moment of history.
Diamanti's fine set-piece from the right
slammed against the crossbar, before taking a cruel blow off the back of
bamboozled goalkeeper Muslera and on the line before Astori made sure
tapping the ball into the net and hand the Azzurri the lead with Fifa
sanctioning use of goal-line technology for the first ever time to
determine the goalscorer.
Oscar Tabarez's side rallied following
that setback. First, Luis Suarez fired a testing effort at Buffon which
tha Italy keeper smartly tipped over the bar, before Edinson Cavani's
header into the net from Forlan's free-kick was ruled out for offside.
There
continued to be chances at both ends. El Shaarawy picked up a loose
ball from distance before striking on the half volley from 25 yards,
only to see Muslera turn it behind, Uruguay then had a shout for a
penalty after the ball bounced up on Chiellini, but referee Djamel
Haimoudi of Algeria thought otherwise.
Uruguay grew in confidence
in the second half, and soon equalised. Walter Gargano led the surge
through the midfield before picking out Cavani with a fabulous pass,
slipping the ball behind the defenders, before the Napoli forward coolly
curled a low finish past Buffon.
The South Americans continued
in the ascendancy, and were somehow kept out by a supreme double save
from Buffon. Forlan capitalised on a neat pass to launch a stinging
effort at the Italy captain, who produced a world-class stop to keep
Italy in the game.
And the Azzurri were soon to be ahead after
Diamanti made no mistake from a free-kick on 73 minutes which nestled
into the top corner. Moments later, it was 2-2 with Cavani repeating the
trick with a sumptuous free-kick from 30 yards which beat Buffon as the
game progressed towards extra-time.
The additional 30 minute
period failed to separate the teams once more, but Montolivo was sent
off for a second bookable offence following a clumsy trip on Suarez,
though Uruguay failed to capitalise on their advantage as the match was
eventually settled on penalties.
Emanuele Giaccherini capitalised
on three misses from Uruguay to slot home Italy's third in the
shootout, and claim victory in what has been a positive tournament for
Italy ahead of next year's World Cup.
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