Its game over for the Aussies

What a game! Australia came so close to make history but at the end it was the Italians who managed to sneak into the quarter-finals, and how hard they had to work for that.

There were three phases in this match. In the first phase, contested in the first 45 minutes, it was an evenly played game, with perhaps the Italians having a slight edge. They controlled the game better at this phase; they threatened to score and as usual defended as they always do.

Then came the second phase of the match which was enhanced by the sending off of Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the 50th minute. I didn’t think the offence warranted a straight red card for Materazzi but still the Italians were down to 10 men.

Thus began the most crucial period of the match as the Australians saw more of the ball and created more chances while the Italians showed their mastery in defending and yet proving that they can be dangerous in counter attacks.

This is the phase which finally revealed the true limitations of the Australians who had had a reasonably good run in the tournament. In the group stage, their win against Japan came after a ferocious fightback, against Brazil, they did show some glimmer of their potential but still came out losing and finally against Croatia, they were in the back foot and were fortunate to win with a last gasp goal.

In all these three matches, they did not exactly set the world on fire with their performance. No doubt they are a hardworking team and a team with good players and many of my friends thought they will show their credentials and make the world take note of their football. I disagreed with that and after today I am more than ever convinced that they are still a few years and few players away from joining the big boys.

Playing against a 10-man Italy, Australia time and again could not find that killer instinct to finish off the game. They simply did not have the calibre, knowhow and guile to end Italy’s challenge. All they did were trying all day to play that crucial final ball to their strikers to score.

That didn’t happen against the masters of defending. Despite being a man down, Italy showed us how to play a defensive game. They soaked up all the pressure, allowed the Australians to keep coming at them and then still found pockets of space for lightning attacks. And where their defenders failed, they had an outstanding goalkeeper who kept the Australians at bay.

And then we come to the final phase of the game – the introduction of Francesco Totti in the 75th minute. This player then started orchestrating the Italian counter attacks and they very nearly went close to score a few times.

The fourth official indicated that three extra minutes were to be played and after that if it remained goalless, we would be going into extra time. The big question was could the 10-man Italians manage to play another 30 minutes.

The climax of this third phase then came when the match clock was showing 92 minutes and 53 seconds. The Italians who had managed to keep their slyness and divings in their pockets all the while finally plucked out one which eventually won them the match – a blatant penalty.

I thought the referee fell for the dive and just as Totti successfully dispatched his beautifully taken penalty into the net, the game was over.

Australians go home now, desperately kicking themselves for being naïve in not killing off the game when they could. As for the Italians, they will now attempt to bury the ghost of 2002 World Cup by progressing even further than the quarter-finals.