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Friendly international

Italy 2 - Spain 1

Spain lost to Italy in an injury plagued pre-season friendly on Wednesday night. Puyol, Fàbregas, Sergio Ramos and Puyol were already unavailable, and after Torres, Piqué and Iraola all had to leave the field of play, Del Bosque was forced to draft midfielders Busquets and Javi Martínez in to a makeshift defence for the second half. Criscito hit the post for the Italians early on before slipping a pass through for Montolivo to open the scoring on the quarter hour mark, and Arbeloa had to clear off the line from Rossi a few minutes later after Casillas could only half-block his shot. But Silva brought a first save out of Buffon and Cazorla fired a good chance wide, and with ten minutes to go to the break Xabi Alonso equalised from the penalty spot after Chiellini held back Llorente. Both sides had chances after the restart, with Llorente shooting wide and Buffon saving from Silva, and Valdés keeping out a dangerous Pirlo free kick. But with six minutes to go a speculative shot from Aquilani took a big deflection off Albiol to wrong-foot the keeper, and Italy were the winners. (10.08.11)