Antonio Cassano and Mario Balotelli scored the goals as Italy beat 10-man Ireland 2-0 at the Municipal Stadium here on Monday to reach the Euro 2012 quarter-finals.

Spain’s 1-0 win over Croatia meant Italy finished second in Group C and will play the Group D winners in the last eight while Ireland finish bottom with three defeats.

While Italy were worthy winners, Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni will have been bemused to see his side concede both goals from corners.

But Italy coach Cesare Prandelli will also have been concerned by his side’s dip in physical condition in the final 20 minutes, just as it did in their previous two games.

Prandelli admitted they had been taken a little by surprise early on.
“We had some difficulties in the first minutes, they decided to play the ball on the ground and we messed up in centre midfield,” he said.

“Normally we’re more careful and wouldn’t let them get so far up the pitch but once we found our feet, especially in midfield, we did some good things.”

Ireland, who showed much will but little quality, finished the game a man down after Keith Andrews was sent off late on by referee Cuneyt Cakir. Having had their game plan thrown into disarray by conceding early goals in their previous two matches, Ireland at least seemed fired up from the start.

Several times Ireland broke at pace and had the Italian defence back-pedalling but they spurned their own chances through either a wayward pass, poor decision-making or running down a blind alley.
Even so, Trapattoni said he was proud of his players.

“We played much better this evening than we did against Spain and Croatia, we played with more personality and respected what we had said about credibility and commitment,” he said.

“This evening we made some little mistakes from two corners and we’re not used to these little mistakes but I’m proud of our commitment because although Italy beat us, we gave them our honour.”

Italy soon took command although Daniele De Rossi’s left-foot volley from outside the box was a touch over-ambitious.
Selected ahead of Balotelli, Antonio Di Natale found space in the box three times only to see his shots blocked by Irish centre-backs Richard Dunne and Sean St Ledger.

Di Natale was giving Italy what Prandelli had asked for as he got in behind the defence to latch onto Cassano’s through ball before rounding goalkeeper Shay Given and shooting goalwards, only to see St Ledger recover to hack the ball off the line.

Moments later Cassano set his sights from distance and although Given had his body behind the ball, he spilled it and was relieved to see it bounce behind for a corner.

That proved a costly blunder, though, as Cassano ran across Andrews to get a flicked-header on Andrea Pirlo’s corner that squeezed past Given and over the line.

Italy kept the pressure on at the start of the second half as St Ledger and Dunne were called upon to block shots from Di Natale and Cassano, respectively.

Ireland created a couple of half chances and Andrews had a sight of goal but from 25 yards his volley dipped straight into goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon’s arms.

As they had done in the previous two games, Italy’s stamina dipped in the final 20 minutes and Ireland started really coming into the game with Andrews having a crack from a free-kick that Buffon could only parry.

Prandelli made a couple of substitutions and switched to a 4-5-1 formation with Balotelli as the loan frontman.
Late on he did brilliantly to hold off John O’Shea, who had a fistful of his blue shirt, to meet Alessandro Diamanti’s corner with an acrobatic volley to kill the game and put the seal on victory.

The temperamental star seemed angry and started to say something before Leonardo Bonucci covered his mouth to prevent the Manchester City forward creating any controversy.

Spain rolls into final eight with 1-0 win
Defending champions Spain qualified for the Euro 2012 quarter-finals after replacement Jesus Navas hit the late winner in their nervy 1-0 victory over Croatia, who bowed out on Monday.

Spain qualify as Group C winners and will now play their quarter-final in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Saturday against the Group D runner-up, while Italy finish second thanks to their 2-0 win over Ireland in Poznan.

Having come on for Fernando Torres in the second half, Navas hit the 88th-minute winner after Xavi Hernandez chipped the Croatian defence and Andres Iniesta provided the final pass.

“It was a difficult game for us, we had a high percentage of ball possession and we proved we can control the game,” said Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque.

“We were fighting for a victory, not a draw and we have taken a step forward here by qualifying, this is motivation for the quarter-finals.

“The team played well, even though things didn’t go according to plan.
“We have no preference whether it is France, England or Ukraine, we have to be ready to take whatever comes.”

The World Cup winners top the group with seven points after their opening draw with Italy and 4-0 rout of Ireland, while there was heartbreak for Slaven Bilic’s Croatia.

Del Bosque named an unchanged team, while Bilic abandoned the 4-4-2 formation he used in the opening win over Ireland and the draw with Italy for a 4-2-3-1 formation.

As they had done in Thursday’s hammering of Ireland here, Spain started with almost 80 per cent ball possession, which never dropped below 60, as Croatia seemed content to hit long balls down to lone striker Mario Mandzukic.

On a rare early forage into the Spanish half, Danijel Pranjic fired a shot to the left of Spain goalkeeper Ilker Casillas, who dealt with the left-footed shot comfortably on 25 minutes.

Croatia defender Vedran Corluka was booked for dissent soon after as German referee Wolfgang Stark chose not to award a penalty after Spain’s Sergio Ramos sliding tackle caught Mandzukic’s ankle.

It remained goalless at the break and news of Italy’s lead against Ireland raised the tension inside the Gdansk stadium as the second half wore on.

Croatia’s best chance came approaching the hour mark when Luka Modric’s cross was met by Ivan Rakitic, but Casillas parried away his header.

After a fairly ineffective first 60 minutes, Torres made way for Navas in the three-man forward line, but both sides squandered chances.

With time almost up, the decisive blow came when Hernandez floated his pass over the defence for his Barcelona team-mate Iniesta to draw Croatia’s goalkeeper Stipe Pleitkosa and then feed Navas who made no mistake.

There could be more bad news for Croatia on Tuesday when UEFA are expected to make a ruling over alleged racist chants from Croat fans directed towards Italy striker Mario Balotelli in last week’s 1-1 draw.

A stiff penalty is expected given UEFA president Michel Platini’s previous assertions that European football’s governing body has a “zero tolerance” on the issue.

European football’s governing body has already imposed the threat of a six-point reduction on Russia’s next European championship qualifying campaign, after missiles and fireworks were thrown at their opening Group A match against the Czech Republic on June 8.