England 1 Italy 2 player ratings: Who scored higher - Raheem Sterling or Andrea Pirlo?
A look at the performances in this Group D meeting
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Your support makes all the difference.England's World Cup campaign finally got underway as they narrowly lost to Italy in an exciting encounter.
Raheem Sterling almost scored a screamer early on, with even the BBC briefly registering it as a goal before the world realised it had hit the side netting.
However it was Italy who took the lead through Claudio Marchisio and a clever corner routine.
England equalised almost immediately though through Daniel Sturridge and went into half time at 1-1.
In the end though Mario Balotelli put Italy back in front early in the second half and England never managed to level things back up.
Here, we take a look at how the players rated...
Who do you think was the stand out player? Let us know in the comments below.
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