ã Reuters

Christian Vieri, the World Cup's star striker, guided Italy into the quarter-finals here on Saturday with a superb winner in a 1-0 victory over Norway.

Vieri, the tournament's top goalscorer with five goals in four games, gallopped through oceans of space in the 18th minute at the Stade Velodrome to end Norway's 17-match unbeaten run. Italy now meet either France or Paraguay in Paris after a tight game which saw Italy beat the Norwegians at their own long-ball game. Norway, who sensationally defeated Brazil 2-1 in their last group match, found out why Italy have a reputation as the world's best defenders as they toiled to no avail in the searing afternoon heat. Fabio Cannavaro took care of danger man Tore Andre Flo, while veteran Giuseppe Bergomi held the line as libero in a textbook defensive performance.

It may not have always pleased the crowd, who whistled Italy when they simply knocked the ball around among themselves, but it got a rave review from coach Cesare Maldini.

"We had a very good game and we took very few risks,"  Maldini said. "Over the hour and a half we had three or four chances to score, so I think that our victory was definitely fully deserved. Norway are a very difficult side to play against, they had had a very, very good run of results, they beat the great Brazil in their last match, so it's a very good result for us. " 

Maldini was particularly proud of Vieri, who sprinted after a long ball forward and left his marker Dan Eggen trailing in his wake. "We did very well to keep possession of the ball," said the coach. "And I don't want to exaggerate, but I think the goal we scored was straight out of the textbook." 

Vieri remained as unfazed as ever, saying: "I'm happy. But the important thing is that the team are through to the next round." Mind you, it's just as well I got that ball when I did, because I don't think I could have run nearly the length of the pitch by the end of the match." 

The misery was all for the plucky Norwegians, who for the second World Cup running went out because of a 1-0 defeat to Italy. Coach Egil Olsen felt let down by his side, saying: "I'm disappointed for several reasons. We didn't play up to our limit and I felt that if we had done that we would have beaten Italy." I wasn't very impressed by Italy either. So it was more because we didn't play well that we lost the match.

"Our performance was not too good and we didn't take the chance we had in the second part of the second half, when Italy were more tired than we were." 

Eggen admitted: "I saw Vieri turn around, and then he was gone. I couldn't catch him. It was a mistake which decided the match but it's just one of those things that happens in football. It's a bit sad." Flo summed up the feelings of many saying: "The best memory of this World Cup was the victory over Brazil." 

The writing was already on the wall for Olsen's men in the first half, with Italy taking the first of four clear scoring chances. Luigo Di Biagio sent a laser-guided long ball downfield and Vieri raced through, beating Eggen for pace and then goalkeeper Frode Grodas with a low, rasping shot.

Dino Baggio, who headed the winner when Italy beat Norway at USA 94, then forced a desperate save on the line by Grodas when he met Francesco Moriero's corner with a bullet header. And a disappointing Del Piero had two chances to make it 3-0 in the last five minutes.

But he saw one shot blocked by the Norwegian goalkeeper, when he collected another long ball and surged through on the break, and then saw a chip tipped away by Grodas' fingers.

Norway's best first-half effort came in injury time, when Manchester United's Henning Berg flashed a header wide from close range. Italy kept probing Norway's defence in the second half, which started with Del Piero firing two tame shots straight at the keeper. The Juventus ace summed up his whole afternoon in the 65th minute, when he again swept through and with only Grodas to beat from a dozen yards sent his shot inches wide of the far post.

Pagliuca, who hadn't put a foot wrong all afternoon, then pulled off a stunning save in the 70th minute when he defied Chelsea's Tore Andre Flo with a close range header.

Stig Bjornebye whistled a free-kick narrowly over Pagliuca's bar in the 85th minute, but Ronny Johnsen then sent his effort into clouds shortly after collecting a pass from substitute and Manchester United teammate Ole Solskjaer.

Norway were expending plenty of energy but getting nowhere, other than towards the tournament door marked 'exit.'

© - AFP - 1998