Iceland 2 - 0 Italy
Gudjohnsen 17 (Ic), Einarsson 19 (Ic)
Marcello Lippi's Italy debut was a dismal 2-0 defeat in Iceland, though Luca Toni and Manuele Blasi earned their first caps.
Lippi made his Italy debut with this international friendly in Iceland and he made several changes to the set-up left by Giovanni Trapattoni. The former Juve Coach left out Alessandro Del Piero due to his poor form, but was without the injured Francesco Totti, Antonio Cassano, Christian Vieri, Fabio Cannavaro, Cristiano Zanetti and Bernardo Corradi. Alberto Gilardino, Andrea Pirlo, Matteo Ferrari and Daniele Bonera were on Olympic duty.
He brought along three new faces - Luca Toni, Francesco Flachi and Manuele Blasi - but none of them were in the starting eleven. Lippi, a former Sampdoria player, fielded two Blucerchiati from the beginning with Fabio Bazzani and Sergio Volpi, while Stefano Fiore and Marco Di Vaio made their first Italy appearances since moving to Valencia.
Former Lazio midfielder Fiore was restored to the Trequartista role he held in Euro 2000, behind strikers Di Vaio and Bazzani. Italy were wearing their new midnight blue kits for this friendly match, a warm-up for the opening 2006 World Cup qualifier against Norway on September 4.
Lippi's reign didn't get off to a great start, as some sluggish defending allowed Iceland to take the lead after 17 minutes. Gianluigi Buffon managed to parry Einarsson's effort with one hand, but could do nothing on Gudjohnsen's follow-up.
Italy hit back immediately and Stefano Fiore's angled drive was palmed out with difficulty by Kristinsson, but moments later the home side doubled their lead. Another defensive error saw Marco Materazzi's wayward intervention come off the woodwork and into the path of Einarsson.
It may have been a friendly game, but Di Vaio was furious when he was hacked down by Helguson and the Iceland international was booked.
Materazzi was lacklustre and lost the ball under pressure at the byline, but Helguson's shot was wide of the target. Iceland were very motivated and dominated these early stages of the game, with Helguson clipping his effort just over the bar with Buffon out of the running.
When fullbacks Massimo Oddo and Gianluca Zambrotta were able to whip crosses in, the tall Scandinavian defenders were almost always ready to clear from Di Vaio and Bazzani.
There were penalty appeals just before the break when Fiore rolled a great pass across the face of goal for Bazzani, but the Samp player felt he was shoved off the ball by Hreidarsson.
Di Vaio's angled drive skimmed the far post as the Azzurri finally began to push forward after a dismal first half performance.
Lippi made four changes for the second half, introducing Fabrizio Miccoli, Aimo Diana, Alessandro Birindelli and debutant Manuele Blasi in place of Oddo, Simone Perrotta, Sergio Volpi and Di Vaio. He also changed the tactical set-up for a more solid midfield.
Materazzi's poor game continued with a booking for dragging back Sigurdsson by his shirt. Another Italy player was given his first cap, as Luca Toni replaced Bazzani for the 27-year-old Palermo man's debut.
Miccoli thought he had got one back for Italy with a clever chip, but it was disallowed for a dubious offside decision. There was bad news for Juventus ahead of their Champions' League qualifier, as Gianluca Zambrotta limped off to make way for Giuseppe Favalli, but early indications suggest it is only a slight muscular problem.
Aimo Diana sprung the offside trap and went for goal instead of cutting across for the unmarked Toni. Miccoli was typically lively and turned a half-volley over the bar from Materazzi's long ball forward, then the Juve man's corner kick was nodded onto the side-netting by Diana.
Italy were having more of the play in the second half and Blasi nearly beat Aarason with a lob from 30 metres, then the substitute 'keeper rushed off his line to close down Miccoli.
Juve man Miccoli was terrorizing the Icelandic defence and fell between two players as he rushed into the box, but the referee booked him for diving despite replays suggesting there was a shove.
There was also an ugly moment when Hreidarsson was caught on camera spitting at Miccoli, an incident that escaped the eyes of the referee.
However, Iceland went close to grabbing their third in their only real chance of the second half, when Diana required a goalline clearance to keep out Helguson.
Serie B Capocannoniere Toni nearly marked his debut with a goal, as Aarason was at full stretch to fingertip his turn and volley round the post.
Miccoli continued to cause problems for the opposition and with the final kick of the game Hreidarsson's goalline clearance prevented Miccoli grabbing a consolation strike.
Iceland: B Kristinsson (Aarason 49); K O Sigurdsson, Bjarnasson, Hreidarsson; Gudjonsson (Torvaldsson 85), R Kristinsson, B Gunnarson (V Gunnarson 82), Einarsson (Gretarsson 67), I Sigurdsson; Gudjohnsen, Helguson
Italy: Buffon; Oddo (Birindelli 46), Nesta, Materazzi, Zambrotta (Favalli 58); Gattuso, Volpi (Diana 46), Perrotta (Blasi 46); Fiore; Di Vaio (Miccoli 46), Bazzani (Toni 55)
Ref: Frojdfeldt (Swe)
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