Rossi is tracked by Andrews
Keith Andrews and Simon Cox teamed up to fire Giovanni Trapattoni's Republic of Ireland to a 2-0 victory over his native Italy.
The Blackburn midfielder's 36th-minute goal and a second from the substitute Cox in added time secured a fourth successive win for the Republic and extended Trapattoni's unbeaten record against the team he once managed to three games.
Trapattoni insisted the identity of the opponent's was irrelevant and all that matters was the continued improvement his Ireland team are showing. "I don't need the rivalry against Italy," Trapattoni said. "When we play we play to win. The team is [going in] a good direction."
The friendly was Ireland's fourth fixture in 14 days but the Italian insisted arranging another game had been the right thing. "The manager needs these friendly games," he said. "We had four or five young players who get the experience. It is not like Italy where we have a squad of 30. We need to create a team."
Once again Ireland's industry and commitment saw them through against their more technically gifted opponents despite nine changes to the side which defeated Macedonia in Skopje at the weekend.
Though Cesare Prandelli's men have dominated possession, they failed to make the most of it and, when the chances came the Republic's way, the Irishmen took them – two of them at least – with aplomb in front of a crowd of 21,516.
It may not have had the significance of the Republic's famous 1994 World Cup finals win over Italy at the Giants Stadium in New York but it served to illustrate a depth to Trapattoni's squad which many of his predecessors have not enjoyed.
He virtually fielded a second XI, having left out Shay Given, Kevin Kilbane, Aiden McGeady and Robbie Keane on top of the absent Richard Dunne, Damien Duff and Kevin Doyle after Saturday night's 2-0 Euro 2012 qualifying victory in Macedonia.
His opposite number Prandelli, who played under Trapattoni during the 72-year-old's first spell as Juventus manager, retained only five of the men who started their 3-0 win over Estonia but included the defender Giorgio Chiellini, midfield playmaker Andrea Pirlo and rising stars Giuseppe Rossi and Giampaolo Pazzini.
The Italians oozed class on a pitch made slick by persistent rain, with Pirlo and Riccardo Montolivo orchestrating things behind the front two and the right-back Mattia Cassani playing as an auxiliary winger.
But for all the pressure they mounted before the break the Ireland keeper, David Forde, starting his first game for his country, did not have a save of any note to make during the opening 45 minutes.
Pazzini shot wastefully wide from a tight angle with 25 minutes gone after being played in by Claudio Marchisio, and Antonio Nocerino blasted a long-range effort inches over the crossbar two minutes later.
But while the personnel had changed for the Republic, the system and the mentality had not and that will have delighted their Italian coach, who has been trying to instil that message for the past three years.
When they defended, they did so in numbers and with characteristic determination and, if their approach in attack was more rugged than that of their opponents, with Shane Long and Andy Keogh causing problems for Chiellini and Alessandro Gamberini, it proved effective.
Long and Keogh exchanged passes on the edge of the box before the Reading man dragged a 13th-minute shot across the face of goal to serve warning, but when the breakthrough came nine minutes before the break, it was from an unexpected source.
Gamberini was penalised for the latest in a series of fouls on Long 25 yards out, and Hunt shaped to curl the free-kick towards goal. But he instead tapped the ball sideways to Andrews, whose skidding shot flew past the diving Emiliano Viviano and into the bottom corner.
Prandelli made a double change at the break as Pirlo and Rossi made way for Angelo Palombo and Alessandro Matri but the pattern of the first half was largely repeated during the early stages of the second.
Matri shot across goal with 54 minutes gone after Pazzini had expertly turned Cassani's driven pass into his path.
Pazzini and Nocerino departed, as did Kevin Foley and Long, as both managers made changes.
Italy threw everything they had at Ireland as the clock ran down but the substitute Sebastian Giovinco's 86th-minute free-kick, which just cleared the crossbar, was as close as they came to snatching a draw.
Eventually their hopes were finally dashed when Cox made ground to get on the end of Hunt's cross and seal a creditable victory.
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