Gianluigi Buffon saved an 81st-minute penalty by Adrian Mutu to earn world champion Italy a 1-1 draw with Romania in a Euro 2008 thriller on Friday. Striker Mutu put Romania ahead 10 minutes into the second half when he pounced on Gianluca Zambrotta's poor back header. But Italy leveled immediately as Christian Panucci prodded the ball over the line following a Giorgio Chiellini header. Italy, humbled 3-0 by the Netherlands in its opening Group C game on Monday, will feel hard done by after striker Luca Toni had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside before the interval. He powerfully headed in from close range and television replays showed he was clearly behind the last defender when Zambrotta played the ball into the packed box. “Today we deserved to win but luck didn't accompany us,” said Italy coach Roberto Donadoni. “Zambrotta played a great match and that incident (back header) doesn't cancel that out.” Italy, which has only one point and anxiously awaits its meeting with Les Bleus on Tuesday, made five changes with Alessandro del Piero coming in and captaining the side. It also switched to a 4-3-1-2 formation from 4-3-3 and was much more vibrant, creating several chances in the air as it tried to boost its flagging hopes of reaching the last eight. Del Piero failed to connect properly with an early close-range header before strike partner Toni nodded wide from left back Fabio Grosso's center. Toni then had another header superbly pushed away by Romania goalkeeper Bogdan Lobont, who also did well to deny Italy in a penalty-box scramble. Romania had its share of first-half chances with Cristian Chivu hitting the post from a free kick which deflected off defender Panucci. Mutu had a shot saved by Buffon after beating Italy's offside trap while the keeper was also forced into a smart stop from Gabriel Tamas' fierce free kick from distance. Romania midfielder Mirel Radoi was taken off on a stretcher after a clash of heads with teammate Razvan Rat in the 23rd minute. Defender Dorin Goian was also booked and will miss its final group game with the Dutch on Tuesday. Italy expecting clarification Italy wants another clarification of the offside rules from UEFA after it had a goal ruled out Friday. “UEFA wanted to clarify right away that Holland's goal was OK,” Italian football federation president Giancarlo Abete said. “Now I'm expecting an immediate evaluation on the refereeing today and the perfectly fine goal that Toni scored. It's normal that errors are made, but there's got to be consistency.” – Reuters __
