Sweden-Denmark Tie Ousts Italy at Euro 2004

Italy was ousted from the European Championship despite beating Bulgaria, 2-1, Tuesday night on Antonio Cassano’s goal in second-half injury time at Guimaraes, Portugal.

Italy (1-0-2), which lost to France in the final four years ago, finished the first round with five points but wound up in third place in Group C behind Sweden and Denmark, which had identical records and better goal differentials after a 2-2 tie Tuesday at Porto, Portugal.

The Azzuri was eliminated in the first round for the second time in the last three tournaments.

In the quarterfinals, England will play Portugal, France will play Greece, Denmark will play the Czech Republic and Sweden will play Germany, the Netherlands or Latvia.

Italy needed a victory to have any chance of advancing. Coach Giovanni Trappatoni rejected advance speculation that the Swedes and Danes would deliberately play for a tie.

“Despite that everybody was talking about that, there is a sports ethic,” he said. “We are leaving the championship with our heads up. We deserved victory against the Swedes.”

Bulgaria, which lost to the Italians in the semifinals of the 1994 World Cup, went ahead in the last minute of the first half when Martin Petrov converted a penalty kick after Marco Materazzi was called for tripping star forward Dimitar Berbatov in the penalty area.

Simone Perrotta tied the score in the 48th minute with his first international goal and the Italians went ahead on Cassano’s injury-time goal. An excited Cassano raced around and went over to Italy’s bench with his arms raised in a “V” for victory.

But just before Cassano scored, the Italian bench learned that Mattias Jonson had scored for Sweden with one minute left to tie the score against the Danes, the 1992 champion. Cassano then dropped to his knees, burying his face in his hands.

Italy became the first team eliminated from the tournament without a loss since group play began in 1980.

“I feel sorry for [Italy] because I like Italian football,” said Jon Dahl Tomasson, an AC Milan star who scored twice for Denmark. “I would have liked to see them in the quarterfinal. I know the Swedish people don’t like to hear this, but I think Italy and Denmark are the best two teams in the group.

“If you look at the game, everybody was talking about the draw. It was only in the last 30 seconds that we played like that, as the Swedes wanted to go through as well. If you look at the game, we tried to play for the three points.”

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Former U.S. national team coach Steve Sampson was fired as coach of Costa Rica after his team struggled against a traditionally weak Cuban team in World Cup qualifying last week.

“I thought this might happen,” Sampson said. “The circumstances of having the fans and the press against me influenced the decision. The detonator was the result against Cuba.”

The Costa Rican soccer federation announced Sampson’s ouster, saying “a friendly end to the contract was reached.” A replacement was to be announced today.

Costa Rica tied Cuba, 2-2, in an away game and, 1-1, at home, advancing to the next round of qualifying for the 2006 championship on away goals.

“We thank Mr. Sampson for his services, for his dedication to work and his commitment to Costa Rica,” the federation said in a statement. “Unfortunately, soccer deals with results, which have not been favorable.”

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The Columbus Crew announced that team president and general manager Jim Smith is leaving to take a front-office position with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.

Smith, who joined the Crew and Major League Soccer in January 2000, will take over as the Falcons’ vice president of marketing on July 9.

Mark McCullers, the Crew’s executive vice president and the general manager of Crew Stadium, will replace Smith on an interim basis.