Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi levelled from the spot eight minutes from time as Italy grabbed a lucky point in a 1-1 World Cup 2018 qualifying draw with dominant Spain on Thursday.
Italy’s 2-0 defeat of La Roja in the last 16 of the European Championships this year ended Spanish hopes of challenging for a record third consecutive title.
But only three months on, and in spite of failing to win, the former world champion appears to be back with a bang. Italy was outclassed throughout a one-sided performance where Spain enjoyed 77 per cent possession in the opening half. It took only 10 minutes of the second half for the Azzurri defence to buckle, ‘keeper Gianluigi Buffon rushing out to close down Vitolo when he ran on to Sergio Busquets’ through ball and completely missed it.
The results : WC 2018 qualifiers : Europe : Group D : Moldova 0 lost to Serbia 3 (Kostic 20, Ivanovic 37, Tadic 59); Republic of Ireland 1 (Coleman 56) bt Georgia 0; Austria 2 (Arnautovic 28, 48) drew with Wales 2 (Allen 22, Wimmer 45+1-og). Group G : Macedonia 1 (Nestorovski 63) lost to Israel 2 (Hemed 25, Ben Haim II 43); Italy 1 (De Rossi 82-pen) drew with Spain 1 (Vitolo 55); Liechtenstein 0 lost to Albania 2 (Jehle 11-og, Balaj 71). Group I : Kosovo 0 lost to Croatia 6 (Mandzukic 6, 24, 35, Mitrovic 68, Perisic 83, Kalinic 90+2); Iceland 3 (Arnason 37, Finnbogason 90, Sigurdsson 90+6) bt Finland 2 (Pukki 21, Lod 39); Turkey 2 (Tufan 45, Calhanoglu 81-pen) drew with Ukraine 2 (Yarmolenko 24-pen, Kravets 27).
South America : Ecuador 3 (Antonio Valencia 19, Ramirez 23, Caicedo 46) bt Chile 0; Uruguay 3 (Lodeiro 29, Cavani 46, 79) bt Venezuela 0; Paraguay 0 lost to Colombia 1 (Cardona 90); Brazil 5 (Neymar 10, Coutinho 25, Filipe Luis 38, Gabriel Jesus 43, Firmino 75) beat Bolivia 0; Peru 2 (Guerrero 58, Cueva 84-pen) drew with Argentina 2 (Funes Mori 15, Higuain 77). Asia : Group A : South Korea 3 (Ki Sung-Yueng 11, Ji Dong-Won 56, Son Heung-Min 58) bt Qatar 2 (Al-Haydos 16-pen, Soria 45); China 0 lost to Syria 1 (Al-Mawas 54); Uzbekistan 0 lost to Iran 1 (Hosseini 27). Group B : Japan 2 (Haraguchi 26, Yamaguchi 90+5) bt Iraq 1 (Luaibi 60); UAE 3 (Ali Ahmed Mabkhout 14, 47, Ahmed Khalil 90+3) bt Thailand 1 (Chanabut 65); Saudi Arabia 2 (Taisir al-Jassim 5, Nasser al-Shamrani 79) drew with Australia 2 (Trent Sainsbury 45, Tomi Juric 71).
