Confed Cup Round 1: Italy vs Brazil and Egypt vs USA
As was the case yesterday, the final games in Group B required an extra effort by certain teams if they wished to progress. Specifically Italy as the reigning world champion had a tough time coming to grips with Egypt in a previous game. Facing Brazil is no easy tasks. In the other match, the USA took on Egypt.
Italy could not muster any of their special flair to compete with Brazil. Fabiano scored twice, putting Brazil in the lead by 2 goals. Those goals came within five minutes of each other in the first half, at 37 minutes and then at 42. An own goal by Italian Dossena on the stroke of half time sealed their fate: Italy are out of the tournament and Brazil meet South Africa on Thursday evening at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.
At the same time, the USA played against Egypt. Though Egypt had managed to beat Italy some days before, they could not capitalize on the form they had shown in that game: their encounter with the US in Rustenburg ended 3:0 in favour of the hard-working US team who get to play European champions Spain on Wednesday.
Here’s the updated table for Group B
| Group B |
Team | Points |
 Brazil |
9 | |
 USA |
3 | |
 Italy |
3 | |
 Egypt |
3 |
