Italy vs. San Marino: Score, Grades and Post-Match Reaction

Not many expected the San Marino side to compete with Italy in Friday's international friendly between the two nations. And those who felt that way were vindicated after the referee blew his whistle for full time in this match. 

Italy scored two goals on each side of the half to cruise to a 4-0 win over San Marino, giving the Azzurri nothing to complain about from Stadio Renato Dall'Ara on Friday evening. 

Football Italia had the tweet as Italy took home the commanding victory and now prepares to make personnel choices with respect to the lineup in crucial matches:

As the Azzurri's official Twitter account posted well before the actual match was played on Friday, the last time these two squads met in a friendly was 1992. The result was the same then as it was in 2013, as the Italians dominated the ball and the net in the 4-0 result:

Overall, the Italians thoroughly dominated the pace, the possession and nearly all aspects of the game. The Azzurri keepers didn't have to do much to keep possession in their favor, and the few times San Marino did mount an attack, the threat was quickly thwarted. 

Andrea Poli opened up the scoring for Italy in the 28th minute, per 101GreatGoals:

That goal would be followed by one from Alberto Gilardino, who scored just six minutes later to give the Italians a 2-0 lead. That lead would hold up until halftime, and the pace of play was just too much for San Marino to gather in the first half. 

The only reason the score wasn't even more in Italy's favor was due to keeper Aldo Simoncini, who had several nice stops in the first half to keep the San Marino side somewhat in the game. 

After he was taken off prior to the start of the next half, you got the sense that San Marino was just readying their players on the bench with more experience against a squad in Italy that could have won this match by 10. 

One of the surprise substitutes in the second half was former Manchester City star and A.C. Milan striker Mario Balotelli. He was not expected to play after injuries had kept him limited so far, but Cesare Prandelli decided he needed some action against the struggling San Marino side. 

The Azzurri Twitter had the post as he warmed up to enter the game:

He would enter the game in the 51st minute, and it was clear the San Marino side could not keep up with his pace throughout the rest of the second half. He had several runs that could have resulted in goals, and he helped open up the field for his teammates to find creases to lengthen the score. 

One such score was this free-kick boot from Andrea Pirlo to give the Italians a 3-0 lead, via 101GreatGoals: 

The Azzurri would find the net one more time in the 80th minute, when Pirlo's free kick bounced off reserve goalkeeper Federico Valentini and was knocked in off the ricochet by Alberto Aquilani, who had several good chances to score all day and finally found the net in the final few minutes. 

The result was a 4-0 win for an Italy side that expects to compete with FIFA's top teams in the 2014 World Cup. 

Grades

ITALY		SAN MARINO
Player	Grade	Player	Grade
Gianluigi Buffon (out 70')	B+	Aldo Simoncini (off 45')	B+
Christian Maggio (out 76')	B	Alessandro Della Valle (72')	D
Andrea Ranocchia	B	Fabio Vitaioli	C
Angelo Ogbonna	B+	Davide Simoncini	C+
Luca Antonelli	B	Matteo Vitaioli (off 79')	B-
Andrea Poli	A	Michele Cervellini	C
Andrea Pirlo	A-	Fabio Bollini (out 68')	B-
Alberto Aquilani	A	Matteo Coppini (out 45')	C
Alessandro Diamanti (off 51')	B-	Andy Selva	B
Alberto Gilardino (off 51')	A-	Alex Gasperoni (off 60')	C+
Giacomo Bonaventura (off 51')	B+
Subs		Subs
Mario Balotelli (on 51')	B+	Federico Valenti (on 45')	D
Alessio Cerci (on 51')	B	Enrico Cibelli (on 45')	B+
Sau (on 51')	B-	Maicol Beretti (on 60')	B
Salvatore Sirigu (on 70')	C	Lorenzo Buscarini (on 68')	C
Ignazio Abate (on 76')	C	Gian Luca Bollini (on 70')	B
		Gianluca Bollini (on 72')	B-
		Danilo Rinaldi (78')	B
		Danilo Ezequiel Rinaldi (on 79')	C

What's Next

Italy has a huge match coming up in the next few days, as they will travel to face the Czech Republic in World Cup Qualifying play on June 7. A friendly with Haiti awaits after that, but then the next seven matches will not have the kind of ease or free spirit that the friendly competition allows. 

The Italians have three Confederations Cup matches in late June and won't be together again for World Cup Qualifying until September, when four matches could decide their 2014 WC fate. 

San Marino doesn't currently have any matches looming in the near future, but they will try to regroup for qualifying this fall and see if they can pull off the myriad of upsets it will take to make it to the big time. 

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