Italy v Croatia, 08 June 2002

Kick-Off: 18:00 Local (12:00 BST) Assistant referees: Philip Sharp (England) Jens Larsen (Denmark) Fourth official: William Mattus (Costa Rica) Man of the Match: Milan Rapaić (Croatia) The World Cup threw up yet another surprise as Italy were made to pay for a lacklustre performance in Ibaraki. Italy looked set to book a place in the second round when Christian Vieri scored his third goal of the World Cup early in the second half. But Croatia capitalised on some uncharacteristically sloppy Italian defending to scupper those plans. Giovanni Trapattoni's side were left cursing two controversial disallowed goals in the aftermath of defeat. They had good reason to complain about the first, Vieri being ruled offside before he headed in from close range, despite having been level with the last defender when he started his run. The second, when substitute Filippo Inzaghi was penalised for shirt-pulling before a long Italy free-kick found its way into the Croatian net, was more justifiable. But Italy also had themselves to blame for defeat. They failed to come out of first gear until they were behind and seemed happy to sit on their lead when they went ahead.