MANAUS, Brazil, June 15 — Daniel Sturridge cancelled out Claudio Marchisio’s fine strike as England and Italy went into halftime at 1-1 after an action-packed first half of their World Cup Group D match in the Amazon city of Manaus today.

Marchisio fired Italy ahead on 35 minutes after Andrea Pirlo deceived England’s entire defence with an ingenious dummy from a short corner and left the midfielder with time and space to unleash a scorcher from 25 metres into Joe Hart’s bottom right corner.

England replied almost instantly as Raheem Sterling released Wayne Rooney on the left wing and he delivered a perfect cross for Sturridge to drill in a close-range half-volley past Italy keeper Salvatore Sirigu, standing in for the injured Gianluigi Buffon.

Phil Jagielka came to England’s rescue on the stroke of haltime, clearing a Mario Balotelli lob off the line before Antonio Candreva hit the post. — Reuters