Italy humiliated in Hungary

Once again Roberto Donadoni is facing stressful times as his Azzurri went down to Hungary 3-1 in a friendly match at the Ferenc Puskas stadium in Budapest. The defeat comes a year after Italy's last loss to France.

It certainly doesn't come at the right time as Italy will be facing France on September 8 in a vital European Qualifier at the San Siro and a week later they will be facing the Ukraine. Donadoni needs to find a way to restructure the group before these vital encounters.

Donadoni started a team that consisted of Alberto Aquilani as he made a step forward from he U21 national team, while June's hero in the shape of Quagliarella also started along side Toni and Del Piero in attack. Massimo Ambrosini was also brought back into the national team set-up after Gennaro Gattuso was sidelined for injury.

The Azzurri had the better chances in the first half when Pirlo's free-kick was tipped away by goalkeeper Fulop as Aquilani continued the move but his excellent acrobatic shot was saved. Hungary were a very aggressive side and were extremely quick on the counter attack, and looked close to scoring but Gera's shot was well wide.

Toni was later brought down in front of the area but advantage was played as Del Piero thumped in a ball off target.

The Azzurri thought they had later taken lead through Luca Toni as he volleyed the ball into the back of the net only for it to be called offside.

Just before half time Materazzi had to be taken off due to a thigh problem and at half time Andrea Barzagli was brought on for him. Half time also saw the likes of Antonio Di Natale, Pippo Inzaghi and Fabio Grosso come on, the latter making his first appearance after a year.

Four minutes into the second half the Azzurri found themselves 1-0 up as Aquilani's through ball was toe-poked into the back of the net, all was looking like Italy were going to take home the win.

But the lead was to last only 12 minutes as a corner kick found Juhasz unmarked in the area for him to volley home a stunning ball. This goal seemed to spur on the Hungarians even more, as they continued to attack with pace.

The blame was to go to Cannavaro this time as he fouled Priskin with a horrid miss timed tackle. Gera stepped up to face Buffon and comfortably slotted the ball into the back of the net as Buffon was sent the other way.

Pippo Inzaghi saw the ball on rare occasions and the one time it reached him the ball was too difficult to header in while later on Fabio Cannavaro was again at fault as he lost a tackle to Gera who crossed it to the unmarked Feczesin to slot it home passed Buffon.

The only other chance the Azzurri had was from Fabio Grosso's free-kick as it skimmed the woodwork to land comfortably for Massimo Ambrosini only for it to be hauled over to sum up the Azzurri's blue night.

The players were clearly rusty and lacked motivation while hopefully when they play France they would have improved on their match fitness and Donadoni will hopefully have ironed out some of the creases in the line-up.

Thoughts of Cassano coming back into the line-up have been mentioned, and there is also the likes of Iaquinta and Gilardino, all who have been missing for some time.