VIENNA, Austria (AP) -At this rate, Luca Toni's mustache will turn into a full beard by the time he returns to Bayern Munich. Maybe he'll get his scoring touch back then, too.
The 1.92-meter (6-foot-4) striker extended his goal-less streak with Italy to seven games after Sunday's 4-2 penalty shootout loss to Spain in the European Championship quarterfinals after a 0-0 draw.
Toni hasn't scored for Italy since a friendly against Portugal in February, a stretch of 535 minutes.
Perhaps seeking some superstitious help, Toni decided to let his mustache grow after the group stage, when his biggest contribution was drawing a penalty that saw Eric Abidal sent off in the 2-0 win over France.
"Sometimes it's tougher for forwards to maintain their form after a long season," Italy coach Roberto Donadoni said. "But like I've already said, that penalty and expulsion he earned against France was worth two goals."
Toni scored 39 goals to help Bayern win the Bundesliga this season, and his scoring was also crucial for Bayern in the UEFA Cup and German Cup.
Toni scored twice in the last five minutes of extra time against Getafe to put Bayern through to the UEFA Cup semifinals in April, then added two more - including another in extra time - to lead his team to a 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund in the German Cup final a week later.
At this tournament, even though it seemed he was the only reference point in Italy's attack, Toni turned ineffective.
The situation wasn't much different from two years ago, when Toni scored in only one game of Italy's victorious World Cup run, notching two goals in a quarterfinal victory over Ukraine after a season when he led all scorers in Europe with 31 goals for Fiorentina.
Toni wasn't Italy's only unproductive forward.
The Azzurri's seven attacking players all went scoreless. Defender Christian Panucci scored in the 1-1 draw with Romania, while Andrea Pirlo and fellow midfielder Daniele De Rossi scored against France.
"There's no sense in talking in those terms," Italy coach Roberto Donadoni said. "The forwards did their jobs, even though they didn't score goals, they did some positive things."
To Toni's credit, he had a goal annulled against Romania for an offside call that replays showed should have counted.











