As we arrived at Ellis Park in glorious sunshine and watched the crowd build few could have predicted the drama that would unfold. The Italian fans were out in force and appeared confident their beloved team would have enough to make it past Slovakia even though neither team had yet posted a win at the tournament. Although hugely outnumbered, small pockets of vocal Slovakians seemed determined to enjoy their day in the sun no matter what the result.

What followed turned out to be the most dramatic game of the tournament so far. In truth, Italy was abysmal in the first half producing the worst performance I can remember seeing from an Italian side at the World Cup. Pedestrian in possession, lacking in any forward movement and devoid of width they were second best all over the park to a well organised Slovakian team who always appeared to have the edge and the ability to carve out chances on the break. Rock solid at the back with Liverpool's Martin Skrtel outstanding the man of match was Marek Hamsik who was everywhere pulling the strings from midfield feeding the equally impressive Vittek up front in comparison to the largely anonymous Iaquinta and Di Natale up front for Italy. Slovakia went into half time deserved leaders and the Italian fans were wearing very worried expressions at half time. When Vittek added his second after being expertly set up by Hamsik the only card Lippi had to play was the as yet unseen playmaker Pirlo who made a belated entrance to the tournament and immediately spurred the Italians into action. Always available and comfortable in possession all of a sudden Pirlo's introduction gave the Italian side some purpose and they got a foothold back in the match thanks to Di Natale's follow up strike.

Italy's failings were exposed in dramatic fashion as their defenders combined to concede a goal of schoolboy proportions allowing the Slovakian substitute to collect a throw in unchecked and flick the ball past the keeper with his first touch. Game over now surely with Italy having conceded more goals today than they did in the whole tournament in Germany. Not quite as Italy rallied one last time with a stunning goal from Quagliarella who spotted the keeper off his line and produced an exquisite chip to give Italy hope. And they so very nearly did it too. Pepe missed a gilt-edged chance at the death arriving at the far post and volleying wide. Italy departs and again we see just how small the margin is between success and failure at the World Cup. Had Pepe grabbed the equaliser who would have bet against a Pirlo-led Italy going on to have a major say in the knock out stage of the tournament.

In the end the Slovakian team was well worth their win and it would have been cruel on them had they conceded so late in the day and they enjoyed their moment celebrating with their fans near us after the final whistle.

  

Today's drama seems to be symptomatic of this World Cup in that we're seeing the traditional powerhouses finding they can't take any liberties at the group stages anymore and cannot afford to start slowly. Few would have predicted the finishing spots in Italy's group with Italy finishing below the Kiwis. We've seen England struggle to get out of, on paper, an easy group. Spain may yet struggle to make the knockout stages against a talented Chile team after being shocked by the Swiss. And we've seen both 2006 finalists depart home winless at the group stage. If Brazil makes it three wins out of three against Portugal then only three teams will have won their group with maximum points. As a result we're seeing more groups than ever going down to the wire with three and four teams able to qualify on the final round of matches. Many of the "smaller" nations like Slovakia today are well organised in defence, comfortable on the ball and have the ability to break at pace and therefore have the ability to remain in games longer than they maybe have done previously and have the ability to create and convert chances if the favourites are even slightly off their game.

It's certainly made for a very entertaining tournament thus far and finally we're starting to talk about the football more than the ball or the vuvuzelas. Thank god for that.