Moldova U19s draw with Italy

Playing Italy on Saturday in their second qualifier for the 2009 European Championship, Moldova U19s looked on course to win a precious victory until the last minute of the game when Mendicino Ettore shot the second goal for Italy to tie up the score at 2:2, Info-Prim Neo reports. The tricolor squad had an exceptionally good start, opening the score in the 13th minute. 10 minutes later Ettore equalized. Moldova took again the lead unexpectedly in half two (70th min.), thanks to Anatol Cheptene, and troubled the Italian goalie on two other occasions, but saw a disappointing equalizer just moments before the final whistle. After the end of the game, Moldova coach Vlad Goian stated his pupils deserved a win over Italy. “We played great, we had a number of scoring occasions towards the end of the game and we could have won in a landslide. We still have a chance of qualification and we must profit from it”, he concluded. To advance, Moldova U19s desperately need a win over Latvia in their third qualifier on Tuesday, to be played on Zimbru Stadium starting at 3:00PM. Even if successful with Latvia, they still need Russia to hold Italy to a draw at least. [Results:] Russia 2:0 Latvia Italy 2:2 Moldova [Table:] Russia 6 p Italy 2 p Latvia 1 p Moldova 1 p [Fixtures:] Oct. 7 Moldova 3:00PM Latvia Oct. 7 Italy 3:00PM Russia