1 – 2 
Milan’s notorious striker Mario Balotelli gives a perfect start to his national team when he capitalized a penalty area chance and fired a low shot to score the winner for his team in Confederation Cup here in Rio. It was an illuminating night with thousands of fans cheering both the teams but Balotelli, who is often in the news for his non-soccer activities, stole the show during the last moments of the game. Italy won the game with 2-1 margin over Mexico and it was the 100th match for midfielder Andrea Pirlo who scored the first goal of the game in twenty seventh minute. Game started with a sticky note for both the teams as both of them are strong competitors for each other, but psychological advantage went into Azzurri favor when they took the initial lead in first half with Pirlo’s trademark free kick. Mexico offered some resistance in the middle, in fact, striker Javier Hernandez, who plays for Manchester United, helped them equalize the lead within first half itself.
Second half was like a draught on goals, however, both the teams got some chances to find the net but it was Balotelli who could actually capitalize his chance and found the net just before the final whistle. The win is also important for Italy citing it is their first triumph against La Verde since 1993, and as a matter of fact, Pirlo’s goal again proved lucky for his team as Italy has won last twelve matches in which this midfielder has scored. He, indeed, has had a bad spell in last couple of months and in this match too he missed some opportunities, but good news is the whole team performed exceptionally and showcased their strength in front of the world. After the match, Balotelli said, “It was a great game, a great feeling and a wonderful crowd. I don’t care about the referee, the important thing is that we won. That’s all. If we win the next game, then we can progress. It would be wonderful to play here in the final and we will do everything to get there, it doesn’t matter who it is against. Do we have what it takes to reach the final? I think we really do.”
Italy is now on the second place in Group A with Brazil on the top and Japan is on the bottom. Italians will meet Japan on Wednesday while Brazil will be onto Mexico on the same day.