Moldova 0 - 1 Italy
Floro Flores 93 (I)
Chisinau, Moldova

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The Azzurrini left it late in Moldova, as after a catalogue of errors substitute
Antonio Floro Flores finally scored the injury time winner.

Coach Claudio Gentile made only one change to the side that had comfortably
beaten Norway 2-0 in their opening qualifier on Friday, as Piacenza's Simone
Pepe stepped in for the suspended Rolando Bianchi.

Moldova may be the minnows of this Group, but they had a strong start and pushed
the Azzurrini back into their own half. Atalanta starlet Giampaolo Pazzini eased
the pressure with a long-range effort that was just wide, while goalkeeper Phius
pushed a dangerous Alessandro Rosina cross out for a corner.

Josan was the home side's most alert player and he went close with a shot from
25 metres, then Doros saw his effort saved, but Italy finally began to look
dangerous on the half-hour mark.

Marco Donadel's searching pass was slammed wide of the post by Pepe, then
moments later Rosina took advantage of a defensive error when the goalkeeper
completely missed a simple cross only to be kept out by Bordian's decisive
goalline clearance.

The second half started in a similar vein, as Rosina left the 'keeper for dead
and pulled back for Pazzini, but incredibly the Atalanta man managed to fire
wide of the open goal.

Pepe and Riccardo Montolivo continued to make glaring errors in front of goal
and the pressure on Moldova was not made to count. On 66 minutes Aquilani's pass
even found Rosina completely unmarked in the area, but still the Parma man
couldn't get his shot on target.

Something had to be done to spice up this ragged attack force, so former Napoli
sensation Antonio Floro Flores replaced a disappointing Pepe. Aquilani wasted
another golden opportunity, then the referee waved play on when Giorgio
Chiellini fell in the penalty area.

This inevitably left Italy unbalanced and Moldova almost sneaked a winner on the
counter-attack, but Federico Agliardi timed his run perfectly and used his full
height to close down Popovici. The Brescia goalkeeper also flew to palm out a
Gatcan free kick as the home side tried to take advantage of this incredible
number of errors.

However, it was Italy who had the last laugh as deep into stoppages substitute
Floro Flores popped up with the winning goal. A Cesare Bovo free kick was
touched on by Chiellini and nodded in by the ex-Napoli and Sampdoria striker.

Also in Group 5 this evening, Belarus grabbed a shock 3-2 victory in Norway.


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Moldova U21: Phius; Bordian, Golovatenco, Bulgaru, Epureanu; Onich, Gatcan,
Iosan, Chalinkof; Porfireanu (Japalau 72), Doros (Popovici 63)

Italy U21: Agliardi; Ferronetti, Bovo, Potenza, Chiellini; Rosina, Aquilani
(Loviso 83), Donadel, Montolivo; Pazzini, Pepe (Floro Flores 73)

Ref: Levi (Isr)