Italy were embarrassed by Haiti on Tuesday as the unheralded Caribbean side scored two goals in the last five minutes to secure a 2-2 draw in a friendly despite falling behind after 19 seconds.
Haiti’s players, who gave Spain a few frights before losing 2-1 to the world champions at the weekend, celebrated deliriously on the pitch at Vasco da Gama’s Sao Januario Stadium after shocking their illustrious opponents who slunk quietly away.
Italy, playing only 36 hours after arriving in Brazil for the Confederations Cup, went ahead through Emanuele Giaccherini before Haiti had even touched the ball and, after their opponents had wasted several chances to equalise, added a second through Claudio Marchisio in the 72nd minute.
They seemed to have survived everything Haiti could throw at them until Davide Astori fouled Jean-Eudes Maurice in the penalty area and Olrish Saurel converted the penalty with five minutes to go.
Italy looked dazed and weary when a long ball forward found Jean Philippe Peguero and he poked it past goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigiu to the joy of the neutrals in the crowd.
***
India blank Venezuela, meet hong kong in pre-quarters
New Delhi, June 12: India sent Venezuela crashing out of the WSF men’s world team squash championship to set up an exciting pre-quarter-final clash against Hong Kong in Mulhouse, France.
After upsetting strong contenders Argentina and Finland on consecutive days, eighth seeds India clinched pole position in Pool H after dispatching 25/28th seeds Venezuela 3-0 in the final qualifying round of the biennial World Squash Federation event taking place in France for the first time.
Mahesh Mangaonkar was first up in the all-glass court against Miguel Vellennilla and raced away to a 2-0 lead, dropping just three points on his way.
Mahesh eased off in the third game but still had too much saved in his reserve to brush aside the challenge of his lesser-known opponent.
Harinder Pal Sandhu was brought back into the squad as Saurav Ghosal was given a day off with an eye on tougher battles ahead. Harinder won the first game with minimal fuss but took the eye of the ball as Gabriel Teran snatched the second to level the match at 1-1. Thankfully, Harinder got his act together to end any hopes of an unlikely upset. Ramit Tandon was next up and his strokeplay was way too much for Miguel Mendez to handle and the Indian raced to a straight-sets win. — PTI