EGYPT stunned ITALY. 1 - 0 Final.

Egypt stunned Italy 1-0 on a 40th-minute goal by Mohamed Homos on Thursday, night leaving the world champion Azzurri with an uphill battle to reach the Confederations Cup semifinals.

Homos outjumped Daniele De Rossi to meet a cross from Mohamed Abo Terika and headed the ball off the inside post goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.

Goalkeeper Essam El Hadary made several tough saves for the African champions, who were coming off a controversial 4-3 loss to five-time World Cup winner Brazil in their opener.

Brazil (2-0) leads Group B with six points following a 3-0 win over the United States (0-0), while Italy (1-1) is second, ahead of Egypt (1-1) on goal difference. Egypt closes the first round Sunday against the Americans, while Italy plays Brazil in the tournament’s most-anticipated group-phase match.

Italy coach Marcello Lippi changed his front line from an opening 3-1 win over the United States, starting Giuseppe Rossi at center forward this time, with Vincenzo Iaquinta on the right and Fabio Quagliarella on the left wing.

“We tried some different things, and it didn’t go very well,” Lippi said. “We wanted to play with two wide attackers and Rossi moving around in the middle, but we didn’t do anything we trained to do.”

After 20 minutes, Iaquinta moved to the center, Rossi went to the right flank and Quagliarella took up position on the left.

Both of Lippi’s usual center forwards, Luca Toni and Alberto Gilardino, started on the bench. Toni replaced Rossi in the 58th minute, with Iaquinta moving to the left and Quagliarella to the right.

“When Egypt started to play better and work harder they scored a goal from a corner, which is permissible,” Lippi said. “But then we stopped playing. It was a very ugly end to the first half. We tried to turn things around in the second half, but their goalkeeper was very good—he stopped four or five great chances. In the second half, we played fairly well.”