Italy Advances To Final
Posted July 4, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Italy is heading to the World Cup final for the sixth time after a late surge gave them a 2-0 win in their semi-final against Germany on Tuesday.
Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero each scored in the waning moments of extra time.
Grosso curled a left-footed shot past Jens Lehmann in the 119th minute and Del Piero added another in injury time for the three time champions.
Italy has a rich soccer history, first winning the Cup at home in 1934.
The Germans had a hard time accepting their late collapse.
The two teams were even at 0-0 after 90 minutes, with Germany pressing most of the action.
“It’s bitter to lose like that,” Germany defender Philipp Lahm said. “We had set ourselves the target of reaching the semifinals, but once you’ve reached that you want to go all the way.”
“It was an even game,” added tournament leading scorer Miroslav Klose. “Compliments to the Italians, they took advantage of their fast breaks. We can be proud of our young team. We want to win the game for third place.”
