Euro 2012 - Italy Squanders Chances as Croatia Holds On for a Tie - NYTimes.com POZNAN, Poland - Group C of the European soccer championships is going to the wire. Croatia, hugely underrated except by its traveling army of fans, came from a goal down on a rain-soaked Thursday to tie Italy, 1-1. And the Croats, never allowed by their supporters to give up a cause as lost, are reminding us that in 1998 this was the small Balkans nation that finished third at the World Cup in France. But first, to Italy's beauty. Some people would pay just to see a goal conjured out of a man's imagination, like the one Andrea Pirlo scored six minutes before halftime. Imagine the scene. The ball is inert on the sodden turf, just outside the left corner of the penalty zone. Croatia, one of the tallest sides in Europe, lines up a wall about as high as one will see. No way through there? To ordinary players, maybe, but to Pirlo it was an invitation. His right foot is a wand, and the way he struck the ball, almost with no backswing at all, bent the ball to his will. Maybe it brushed the sweat on the brow of one Croatian forehead as it swerved through the air. Maybe the two men covering the post should not have parted as the ball dipped between them. Maybe their movement caused goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa to see it late before he dived, flapped and only got a hand on the ball when it was already inside his post and over the line. Milan had looked at his birth certificate - Pirlo is 33 - and let his contract wind down. So he left for Juventus last summer. Athleticism was never the defining attribute of Pirlo; genius with an inanimate ball still is. Croatia has a player who approaches his quality, in Luka Modric. The two of them, sprinkling their passes this way and that, were guiding an enthralling contest. This Italy is nothing like the negative, game-spoiling Azzurri of decades past. Its coach, Cesare Prandelli, has shaken off the recent suspicion of match fixing and concentrated on the positive, at times beautiful, arts. Many tell Prandelli he is picking the wrong players. On the eve of this game, Toto Schillaci, the scoring totem of the 1990 squad, presumed the right to broadcast that the coach was wrong to leave out Antonio Di Natale in favor of the conundrum that is Mario Balotelli. Prandelli made his choice. Balotelli and Antonio Cassano were again his chosen attackers and Di Natale was on the bench. Three times, though, Balotelli squandered chances. He poses such a huge, muscular figure in the penalty box that he attracts defenders in clusters of three. At one point, with his back to goal, Balotelli eluded all three opponents, turned, but alas shot wide. Then he was ponderous to make up his mind. For his talent, the coach likes him. Prandelli invests in a player age 21 who he believes will grow into something special. But for the second game running, Balotelli faded and lost enthusiasm, to be replaced by Di Natale. By then, the game was swinging. Croatia has never lost to Italy since it gained independence from the former Yugoslavia, and with the huge and boisterous Croatian fans yelling their team on, the equalizer arrived shortly after Balotelli had departed. A high and hopeful cross was swung from left to right by Ivan Strinic. Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini completely misjudged its flight, Mario Mandzukic was behind him. One touch from Mandzukic's right foot controlled the ball, the second struck it venomously against the post from where it cannoned high into the net. Super Mario had delivered after all: Mario Mandzukic, not Balotelli.