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On Thursday in the city of Poznan, Poland, in the Euro 2012 Group C match, the national teams of Italy and Croatia shared a point each - a spirited draw 1-1.
In the first half, the best opportunity to score was for Claudio Marchisio, a 'azzurri' midfielder who found himself in front of the goalkeeper, but both his initial and subsequent attempts were well saved by Stipe Pletikosa.
Nevertheless, Italy soon took the lead when the veteran Andrea Pirlo reminded everyone of his precision in executing unstoppable penalty kicks.
After the big break, Slaven Bilic's team gained control of the game, and they managed to equalize the score in the 72nd minute - Ivan Strinic lifted the ball into the penalty area for Mario Mandzukic, who scored from close range, beating Buffon.
It is worth noting that this was already the third goal for Croatia in the championship. Mandzukic climbed up the goalscorer's ranking, leaving behind Mario Gomez from Germany and Alan Dzagoev from Russia.
In the final group match, with both Italy and Croatia collecting two points, the Italians will face the outsiders of the group, Ireland, while the Croatians, with four points already, will aim to challenge the European and World champions, Spain.
Italy 1 - 1 Croatia 39' [1 - 0] A. Pirlo 72' [1 - 1] M. Mandzukic
