Four shots on target, three more points, it was all a bit too easy for Italy here last night. Dino Zoff summed the game up with a shrug of the shoulders afterwards.
Zoff's side may have ceded vast tracts of territory to an always willing, if rather blunt Belgium team, but they are well on their way to making Brussels, and this stadium which holds such bad memories for them, their home for the immediate future. Assuming they safely negotiate the challenge of Sweden in Eindhoven next Monday, Italy will win Group B and meet the runners-up of England's group in Brussels on Saturday week. Win then and Italy would play their semi-final here as well.
Last night they became the first Italian team to play here since the Heysel disaster 15 years ago and wreaths were laid prior to kick-off. At the end a couple of players threw their jerseys to the Italian fans. It was no exorcism, but at least Italians can now think of Brussels and smile.
Francesco Totti's sixth-minute header gave Italy the perfect start and though Belgium rallied and rushed, the game ended as a contest with 25 minutes to go when Stefano Fiore added a marvellous second. Given that the manner of victory was almost casual, it is difficult to tell just how good Zoff's men are. Ominously good is probably the correct assessment.
Formations, formations. So many teams, so many ways to play, formations are the talk of the tournament. It's not just England. Italy dispensed with the 3-5-2 pattern which had overcome Turkey last night. The injury to Gianluca Pessotto meant a game for Mark Iuliano at centre back and a change to 4-4-2. It served Italy well, in the main.
It needed to early on. One of the consequences of scoring so quickly, and indeed, one of the reasons why the championship has staged so many entertaining matches, is the simple fact that the opposition then have to show their hand. Totti's goal made Belgium attack.
They did that better than they defended. Even before Totti's intervention the Italians had worried Filip de Wilde in the Belgian goal. In the second minute only the awkward height of the bouncing ball prevented Antonio Conte from converting Gianluca Zambrotta's right wing centre. Three minutes later De Wilde was called into action after Paolo Maldini had popped up in the Belgian box and snatched possession from the dawdling Gert Verheyen. Maldini volleyed, De Wilde blocked. The ricochet ran to Filippo Inzaghi but De Wilde scrambled back on to his line to claw the ball away.
After De Wilde's sloppy footwork here on Saturday night, the impressive double save must have calmed the Belgium keeper. Certainly he was blameless when he was beaten shortly after. Demetrio Albertini swung in a whipped free-kick from the right and Totti rose an inch taller and faster than his marker Nico van Kerckhoven to plant a firm header wide of De Wilde. Once that would have been the signal for Italy to close play down and kill the flow. For the rest of the half it was practically one-way traffic and only the woodwork stopped Belgium from getting the equaliser.
That was just four minutes after Totti's header and was the only time Belgium's dangerous left-sided midfielder Bart Goor received the ball in a threatening position. Taking the ball from the relentless Marc Wilmots, Goor's sweet shot beat Toldo comfortably and came back off the crossbar. Moments later Francesco Toldo made a save from Emile Mpenza.
The Italians will have expected a flurry of activity from Belgium after the goal but they got more than that. Powered on by Wilmots, Branko Strupar might have done more with a header from a Goor corner and Toldo twice blocked shots from Wilmots.
Lorenzo Staelens brought an athletic save from Toldo three minutes after the restart and Wilmots then went close with a header. In the 63rd minute Luc Nilis, on for the disappointing Strupar, made Toldo stretch again with a free-kick. It was a catalogue of Belgian pressure.
All the while the Italians wore an indifferent look. We were to find out why when, with only their third effort on target, Fiore made it 2-0. Swapping a swift one-two with Inzaghi, Fiore guided the ball beyond the grasp of De Wilde. Fiore had made it look easy. His colleagues did the same.
Substitutes: Italy - Del Piero for Totti (63 mins). Delvecchio for Inzaghi (77 mins), Ambrosini for Fiore (82 mins). Belgium - Hendrikx for Van Kerckhoven (45 mins), Nilis for Strupar (58 mins), M Mpenza for Verheyen (67 mins).
