the first world cup match started in france.
when does the first world cup match start?
france
in the 2014 world cup, italy were placed in group d, along with costa rica, england and uruguay, in what was called the "group of death". on 14 june, in italy's opening match against england, pirlo wore the captain's armband due to buffon's last minute injury. the match ended with a 2–1 win to italy. pirlo heavily contributed to italy's win, controlling the flow of the game, and setting up several goalscoring chances, as italy dominated possession. during the match, pirlo made 108 passes in total, only misplacing five, with a pass completion rate of 95.4%, completing the most passes of any other player in the previous opening matches of the 2014 world cup. with a 93.2 pass percentage, italy also managed to record the highest pass accuracy percentage of any team in a world cup match since denmark in the 1966 world cup, completing 561 of their 602 passes. pirlo also contributed to italy's first goal of the match: antonio candreva's short corner was played to marco verratti, who then passed the ball out wide towards pirlo, who drew his marker with him. pirlo let the ball pass in between his legs to marchisio, leaving him with space to score with a low drive from outside the area. pirlo also managed to hit the crossbar from a swerving free kick in injury time. italy suffered 1–0 defeats in both of their remaining matches against costa rica and uruguay, however and were eliminated in the group stage for the second consecutive world cup, finishing in a disappointing third place in their group, behind costa rica and uruguay. pirlo's appearance against uruguay was his 112th cap for italy, which allowed him to equal dino zoff's number of appearances for the italian national team, and made him the fourth most capped player for the italian national team. the italian squad and manager, cesare prandelli, were criticised for over-relying on pirlo to create goalscoring chances. although pirlo was able to set up some goal scoring opportunities and did test the opposition goalkeepers with some dangerous free kicks in the final two group games, his performances were stifled by the defensive pressure of the opposition, and he was much less dominant than he had been in the opening match against england. although he had previously communicated his intention to retire after the world cup, he stated, upon his return to italy, that he would still be available to play for the national team.
andrea pirlo
over the years match timings for day/night games in both the sunday/national league and the twenty20 cup has changed. in july 1997 in the very first day/night match at edgbaston play did not start on that night until 6.10 pm with play not finishing until 11.38 pm which brought about complaints from locals. these days matches apart from the twenty20 cup start in the mid-to-late afternoon at either 2.30 pm for friends provident trophy and one day international matches with pro40 matches starting a bit later at 4.40 pm with matches finishing at around 10.15 pm to 10.20 pm. day/nighttwenty20 cup match start and finish times has also changed over the last few years. in 2003 matches started at 7.30 pm and finished at 10.15 pm. in 2006 timings were brought forward with the matches starting at 7 pm with the match finishing at 9.45 pm.
day/night cricket in england