Relief as Italy return to winning ways

Italy's media breathed a sigh of relief after the world champions beat Ukraine 2-0 in a Euro 2008 qualifier to notch up their first victory since Roberto Donadoni took over as coach.

Saturday's win, which followed a defeat to Croatia in a friendly in August, then a 1-1 draw with Lithuania and a 3-1 loss to France in their opening two Group B matches, put them back on track in their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign.

"Welcome back Italy," read the headline on the front of Corriere dello Sport yesterday.

La Gazzetta dello Sport noted the Azzurri's shaky performance, but ran a front-page editorial entitled "Winning again was the only thing that counted".

Italy were grateful to an inspired performance from goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon who made a string of saves to ensure the first clean sheet of Donadoni's tenure before a 71st-minute penalty by Massimo Oddo broke the deadlock.

"I just did what I had to. We knew it was going to be tough," Buffon was quoted as saying in La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"It was a difficult match and if we hadn't won this time, it would have been a very negative result."

Luca Toni also gave an impressive performance in his first international since the World Cup final in July.

The Fiorentina striker scored twice in the 3-0 win over Ukraine in the World Cup quarter-finals and was again on target on Saturday, grabbing Italy's second goal with a dipping shot from outside the area.

"It's obviously a team that brings me luck," he said. "It wasn't easy to find space, but in the end we did it. I was pleased for Donadoni, who has been going through a tough period, like all of us."

Toni's strike partner Alessandro Del Piero warned, however, that Italy could not afford to get complacent in the run-up to their next qualifier away against Georgia on Wednesday.

"We deserved the win, but we need to win on Wednesday to keep up," he said.

Donadoni admitted his players were short of the form that carried them to glory in Germany.

"We weren't great in certain situations but we never stopped trying, never stopped fighting for the ball," Donadoni told reporters.

"They (Ukraine) were dangerous but mostly with long-range shots and free-kicks. In open play they never once got one-on-one in front of our keeper which was a great testament to the way we defended."

Ukraine, without strikers Andriy Shevchenko (flu) and Serhiy Rebrov (injury), went closest to scoring in the early stages.

Midfielder Anatoly Timoshchyuk tested Buffon with a long-range effort before Oleg Gusev forced a close-range save from the Juventus keeper.

Italy took 20 minutes to muster their first attempt on goal, Del Piero blasting over the bar.

After half an hour of watching their side struggle, the home fans broke into a chant of "Italia, Italia".

Italy came out aggressively after the interval, Shovkovsky saving a snap-shot by Vincenzo Iaquinta. The visitors remained dangerous as Buffon pulled off good saves from Timoshchyuk and Gusev. However, Ukraine self-destructed when Rusol tugged at Toni's arm and the big striker tumbled over for the penalty.

"I was not sure about the penalty," said Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin. "Italy were not as good as when they beat us at the World Cup but they are still working their way into form.

"I don't want to take anything away from them, though. Overall, they deserved it."

Scotland top the group with nine points followed by France on six and Lithuania and Italy on four.