Own goal hands draw for Italy

A bizarre own goal by Austria's debutant goalkeeper Ramazan Ozcan handed Italy a 2-2 friendly draw on Wednesday in Marcello Lippi's first game back in charge since their 2006 World Cup triumph.

Ozcan, a halftime substitute, punched Gianluca Zambrotta's cross into the net midway through the second half to take the gloss off former Czech Republic boss Karel Brueckner's opening match as Austria coach.

Emanuel Pogatetz and Marc Janko put Austria 2-0 up in the first half before striker Alberto Gilardino, overlooked by previous coach Roberto Donadoni for Italy's disappointing Euro 2008 campaign, was fortunate to pull one back on halftime.

Italy, who play their opening World Cup Group Eight qualifier away to Cyprus on Sept. 6, had the better chances to snatch victory at the end but the flaws exposed in their stuttering run to the Euro quarter-finals in June remain.

"It was great, really great to come back although it was less great when we were 2-0 down," Lippi told Rai television.

"At the start we did some good things but then we were distracted. Later we sped up our play and we've got the result."

SUSPECT DEFENDING

The Azzurri had the better of the early exchanges with new Fiorentina signing Gilardino going close with a header and then losing his balance when one-on-one with keeper Alex Manninger.

Austria had barely had an attack when a cross from the right found its way to Pogatetz, who smashed a first-time shot into the roof of the net on 15 minutes.

Gianluigi Buffon was picking the ball out of the Italy net again six minutes before halftime when more suspect defending allowed Paul Scharner to flick on a throw-in for Marc Janko to hook into the top corner.

The Austrian pair had been late call-ups to Brueckner's squad with midfielder Scharner returning from two years in the international wilderness and Janko the only Austrian-based player in the starting lineup.

World champions Italy then finally netted in first-half injury time when Austria defender Martin Stranzl tried to clear Antonio Di Natale's cross only for the ball to brush off Gilardino's chest into the net.

Austria start their World Cup qualifiers at home to France in Group Seven on Sept 6 having been eliminated in the group stages of Euro 2008, which they co-hosted with Switzerland.