ByDanny Caro, Danny Caro
Israel suffered a 3-1 defeat against Italy in their World Cup qualifying opener in Haifa on Monday night.
Elisha Levy named a youthful team in his first competitive match against an Italy team led by new boss Giampiero Ventura.
It took the visitors just 13 minutes to open the scoring at the Sammy Ofer Stadium when former Southampton striker Graziano Pellè turned in a low cross from Luca Antonelli.
Israel were unable to breach Italy's three-man central defence and naive defending from Ben Bitton saw the young right-back clip Giacomo Bonaventura in the penalty area.
Full-back Antonio Candreva made no mistake from the spot, sending David Goresh the wrong way to give the Azzuri a 2-0 advantage after 31 minutes.
Israel were given a lifeline four minutes later when Giorgio Chiellini produced one of several errors, gifting possession to Tal Ben Chaim deep in the Italy half. With the drop of a shoulder, Ben Chaim looked up a placed a deft chip over the stranded Gianluigi Buffon and into the top corner.
The hosts were handed a numerical advantage 10 minutes into the second half when Chiellini was sent off after collecting his second caution of the night.
Levy threw on Omer Atzily and Roi Kehat as Israel went for the equaliser but they were denied by the reflexes of the evergreen Buffon, 38.
The Juventus stopper denied left-back Ofir Davidaza, Eran Zahavi and Bitton in quick succession before Israel were hit with a sucker punch as super-sub Ciro Immobile ended their hopes with sweet low finish seven minutes from time.
With Spain claiming a handsome win at home to Lichtenstein, the signs are that Israel are already playing for third place in Group G.
On this showing, Levy must consider defensive reinforcement for the trip to Macedonia for their second qualifier on October 6.