They have long memories in Chile, especially when it comes to the business of bad blood. In Bordeaux yesterday they revived their footballing vendetta with Italy in a game that left plenty of bruises, produced five bookings and had just enough controversy to keep them talking till the next time out.

Some good football too, though, comfortably redeeming a game which swung this way and that with operatic grandeur. Italy, who have a habit of backing themselves into a corner in opening games, eventually salvaged a draw from a game which looked to be headed towards calamity for them. Fittingly, the high drama of the last act drew the principal player to centre stage. It was Roberto Baggio who crashed in the crucial penalty.

Interesting times then in Group B where the runners-up spot comes like a cake served with a capsule of cyanide in it. The opportunity awaits to play Brazil, while the plane home idles on the runway.

As such the tackles went in fast and ferocious throughout the game and in the early stages it looked for a few moments as if Nigerian referee Lucien Bouchardeau might lose control. Instead he settled for a character part, cropping up occasionally with interventions which stirred up the partisans.

Italy had the stimulant of an early goal and memories of Giants Stadium in 1994 to rouse them from their traditional early tournament ennui. Maldini, a study in elegance throughout, found Roberto Baggio straying on the left. An almost casual outside of the foot pass fell in the way of Vieri who arrived like a bouncer at the scene of trouble to put it away.

Baggio, back in the limelight having resurrected his career from a sharp decline, had a productive afternoon. Minutes later he prodded through a ball for Di Matteo who, in keeping with his own luckless performance, turned a situation of promise into a corner kick.

The Chileans had a gamey confidence about their play, however. Fabian Estay had a first half filled with trickery and halfway through his cross from the left was looped back by Zamorano onto the head of Salas and over the bar. The Chilean attack poked and pressurised for some time thereafter as Italy nursed their lead and contented themselves with breakaway opportunities. Then, as the half crossed the border into injury time, Salas intervened. Not a thing of beauty but a triumph of practice and perception. A corner from Estay, off the head of Zamorano, lurking on the penalty spot, a nod on from Reyes into the orbit of Salas who stabbed home from within the six-yard box. And so Cesare Maldini's half-time speech was dispatched to the shredder.

The game resumed with equal intensity and a symmetrical tidiness, Salas re-opening for business with his second goal after just five minutes. More simplicity, Villaroel hitting a probing cross from the right which Salas met with a meaty header to the chagrin of a leaden Italian defence.

So Italy found themselves huffing up a sharp incline again. With the inspirational unpredictability of Del Piero denied to him, Cesare Maldini shuffled quickly, making three substitutions in 15 minutes, the most significant of which saw him throwing on Inzaghi and Chiesa as a supplement to an attack which was banging ineffectively off the sturdy three man Chilean defence.

Salvation was late arriving. Again Roberto Baggio was at the heart of the incident. Having fed Inzaghi only to see Tapia produce a fine save minutes earlier, he picked up possession wide on the right and finding his path into the penalty area blocked by Ronaldo Fuentes, he knocked the ball ahead only for it to strike the defender on the hand.

The penalty seemed harsh in the moral sense, but just about arguable in the legal sense. Fuentes's hand appeared to move towards the ball as the prospect of Baggio skinning him registered.

Baggio put the penalty away with a cat burglar's coolness and the game staggered into five fraught minutes of injury time. In Chile they will argue that Italy were lucky. The truth is a little more prosaic.