Head and shoulders above the rest

AS IF the result in Dublin wasn’t enough of a bubble-burster, Italy had to go and canter to the most straightforward of wins on what was supposed to be a potentially tricky, if short, hop across the Adriatic Sea.

Suddenly, next Wednesday’s appointment in Bari has taken on a more sinister hue and Kevin Doyle will probably be thinking that he should be more careful as to what he wishes for in future.

When the Reading striker was asked last week about the possibility of Italy slipping up in Montenegro and Ireland travelling to Europe’s boot as group leaders he replied that such a scenario was the last thing he wanted.

His replay was light-hearted but it echoed the fear held elsewhere: namely that such a combination of results would somehow “blow Ireland’s cover” prematurely and provoke a furious riposte from the Azzurri.

The opposite is quite clearly the case now. Italy’s campaign had been fraught with unconvincing displays up until Saturday but they now approach their next task fortified with a renewed sense of assurance.

Ireland’s failure to take three points in Dublin will gird them still further. Italy were shocked by how poor Bulgaria were, even though they only drew with them in Sofia, and they will reevaluate their opinion of the boys in green on that basis.

It has taken longer than they would have liked but the qualifiers are finally starting to run along the lines the top seeds would have originally anticipated. They will be eager to build on events in the Balkans.

If Marcello Lippi had been offered the chance to write his script of choice before Saturday’s game at the City Stadium, it would hardly have differed much from what actually transpired.

Score an early goal? Check. Reduce your opponents to just one clear sight of goal in 90 minutes? Yes please. Wrap the result up with a second goal with 15 minutes left? Checkmate. All too easy.

Montenegro may protest at such an evaluation and their case would rest on two incidents. The first was the referee’s failure to dismiss Fabio Cannavaro after only 19 minutes when he halted Stevan Jovetic’s run on goal with a blatant trip.

The second would be Radomir Dalovic’s fluffed “shot” on goal two-thirds of the way through the proceedings. He should have scored from just six yards out but his attempt floated towards Gianluigi Buffon with all the speed of a balloon.

No, Italy were deserving victors and they could point to more spurned opportunities than their hosts to prove it. Simone Pepe, Vincenzo Iaquinta and Giampaolo Pazzini were all guilty of missing gilt-edged chances.

Montenegro will mull over the absence of their talisman Mirko Vucinic and wonder how it might have been different if the AS Roma forward hadn’t been suspended but he would have found it difficult to match the majesty of Andrea Pirlo.

Lippi has intimated that he will make changes for the arrival of Giovanni Trapattoni’s Irish side but if there is one untouchable in his starting 11 then it must be the AC Milan puppeteer.

Pirlo pulled all the right strings until his departure nine minutes from time. He wandered the pitch incessantly looking for possession and his fingerprints were smudged all over both goals. It was his cross that Radoslav Batak handled in the Montenegrin six-yard box to concede a penalty after 11 minutes and it was Pirlo’s cheeky chip that scraped off the underside of the bar to give the visitors the lead from the resultant spot-kick.

His influence waned for a time thereafter but only because Italy sat back as only they can and invited their opponents into their trap. When it was sprung, guess who made the first deadly move?

One long, raking ball wide to the right was all it took to let Simone Pepe loose and the Udinese midfielder’s cross from the right found Giampaolo Pazzini unmarked and with the easiest of tasks to make it 2-0 on his senior debut.

Ireland just don’t have a Pirlo who, it must be said, was given a solid, secure platform on which to weave his spells by the industrious pairing of Daniele De Rossi and Angelo Palombo.

Ireland don’t have a Cannavaro either. Or a Chiellini. Or … well, Italy are the world champions. Four points may have been the goal when Ireland gathered last week. Two would be no disgrace now.

MONTENEGRO: Poleksic, Pavicevic, Basa, Batak, Bozovic, Drincic, Pekovic, Boskovic, Vukcevic, Jovetic, Dalovic.

Subs: Beciraj for Dalovic (71), Vojovic for Pekovic (79), Zverotic for Vukcevic (89).

ITALY: Buffon, Zambrotta, Grosso, Chiellini, Cannavaro, De Rossi, Palombo, Pirlo, Quagliarella, Di Natale, Iaquinta.

Subs: Pepe for Di Natale (9), Pazzini for Iaquinta (59), M Brighi for Pirlo (81)

Referee: M Atkinson (England).