October 19, 2000
"Morace goes three-for-three"

Italy 3 Portugal 0

Mario Rimati

Head coach Carolina Morace is on a mini-winning streak at the moment: out ofthree international matches so far (albeit the first two were just friendlies) her national team has won all three games, the last one being a relatively easy 3-0 victory against Portugal for the European qualifier play-off in Sicily's capital Palermo on October 18th.

Italy dominated most of the match on defense and in the midfield area allowing Portugal practically just one shot on net during the length of the entire 90 minutes. Portugal's imminent decline took place just after 8 minutes off of a shot by Tatiana Zorri. The Portuguese goalkeeper had difficulty controlling the ball as veteran player Federica D'Astolfo went in for the kill. One-zero for Italy. Zorri and Rita Guarino followed in the 2nd half with their own personal goals. The match was also characterized by the dominance of corner kicks for Italy: 10 versus Portugal's 3.

The match was played in front of approximately 1,000 spectators including Italian FA president Luciano Nizzola who not only had promised the players that he would be attending the match but who also appeared rather satisfied by Italy's performance. This is one of the few times that the FA president has attended a women's national team match (he was also present at the U.S.-China final last summer but left after only 30 minutes, apparently not enthralled by the spectacle). Italy will now have slightly over one month in order to get prepared for the return match in Portugal on November 22. Portugal's head coach Nuno Cristovào attributed Portugal's lack of technical skills, which was clearly evident during the match, to the inadequate youth sector that currently prevails in Portugal. Italy's situation, like many
other countries presently in southern Europe, is not too much different from Portugal's even though its national team is making tiny yet significant
strides in the right direction under Morace's leadership. Morace appeared rather confident of the team's performance and heads into the return match more reassured of making the qualification.

ITALY: (4-4-2) Brenzan, Masia, Deiana, Tesse, Perelli, Tavalazzi, Pellizzer
(2nd half Frollani), Duo' (Tagliacarne 2nd half), D'Astolfo, Zorri, Guarino.
Head coach: Morace

PORTUGAL: (4-4-2) Olga, Celisa, Paula Mesquita, Be', Ana Rita, Paula Reis,
Sandra (2nd half Silvia), Carla Couto (2nd half Patricia), Maria Joao,
Susana, Paula Cristina (2nd half Anabela). Head coach: Nuno Cristovào

Referee: Jonsson (Sweden)