Friendly: Italy v Croatia

16 August 2006: Italy 0-2 Croatia (Livorno)
World champions Italy stumbled to a 2-0 home defeat to Croatia in Roberto Donadoni's first game in charge. To mark the start of his reign, Donadoni overlooked the players who helped his predecessor Marcello Lippi to secure the World Cup last month. Donadoni opted to give the star names an extended break, but the understudies failed to deliver in Livorno. Croatia took the lead on 28 minutes when Eduardo da Silva headed past Marco Amelia, who was third choice keeper for Italy at the World Cup. Just before half time, Croatia scored again when Luka Modric pounced on the rebound after Amelia had beaten out Milan Rapaic's shot. In the second half, Cristiano Lucarelli headed wide for the visitors, but Italy could not muster a strong enough response to prevent a first defeat in 26 matches. After the game, Donadoni was not downbeat about the outcome in his first outing as Azzurri boss. "I can't complain about what the lads produced," Donadoni told Rai television. "They produced more than I expected given the stage of the season we are at. We know they were more prepared then we are in terms of fitness."

Italy: Amelia; Zenoni, Terlizzi, Falcone, Chiellini; Del Vecchio (Di Natale 85), Liverani (Palombo 57), Ambrosini (Gobbi 75); Rocchi (Di Michele 57), Lucarelli (Caracciolo 65), Esposito (Semioli 46).
Croatia: Pletikosa; Simunic, N Kovac (Leko 46), Srna (Kranjcar 46); Sabljic, Modric, Knezevic, Klasnic (Balaban 62); Seric (Corluka 46), Eduardo (Olic 79), Rapajc (Petric 56).
Ref: Kircher (Germany).