Lucarelli at the double for Italy

Italy 2-0 South Africa
Cristiano Lucarelli scored two late goals to give an experimental Italy side victory against South Africa in a friendly played in Siena.

Climactic goals
The FC Shakhtar Donetsk striker broke the deadlock on 82 minutes to finally end the visitors' resistance, before doubling his tally in stoppage time for Roberto Donadoni's team.

Italy on top
The world champions, whose 2-0 qualifying victory over Georgia on Saturday had enhanced their chances of reaching UEFA EURO 2008™, dominated possession in the first half but struggled to carve out clear-cut chances against resilient opponents. The closest they came was through Cristian Zaccardo's header on 18 minutes, before Daniele De Rossi shot just over the bar six minutes later.

Lucarelli double
When Alberto Gilardino rattled the post after the interval, it seemed it might not be Italy's day. That was until Lucarelli took advantage of poor defending to nod in an Andrea Dossena cross eight minutes from time. He scored the second goal too, again showing his aerial prowess to head in as the game entered added time.