Italy Beats France In Penalties, Wins Fourth World Cup

Posted July 9, 2006 12:00 pm.

This article is more than 5 years old.

The 2006 FIFA World Cup is over, and for the fourth time Italy is the last team standing.

After 120 minutes of unbelievably hard-fought football, the Italians ran off five straight hits in the penalty shootout, downing France 5-3.

The French came out strong in front of raucous crowd in Berlin. They were awarded a questionable penalty shot in the seventh minute, and captain Zinedine Zidane banked it in off the crossbar to give his team the lead.

But the lead was short lived. Just 12 minutes later, the usually defensive Italians pressed back and found an equalizer when a corner kick met the head of defender Marco Materazzi perfectly and made its way to the back of France’s net.

Then things settled in.

The second half began at a blistering pace and both sides had opportunities to take what would’ve likely been an insurmountable lead, but neither could. Materazzi had perhaps the best chance, sending another header off the French crossbar and out of play.

At the end of 90 minutes, the score was knotted at one a piece.

The subsequent 30 minutes of extra time yielded little excitement, but would make for an interesting end to the tremendous career of Zidane. After suggesting it was his destiny to bring France the World Cup before retiring, he almost did just that, sending a screaming header toward the top of the Italian goal.

But it wasn’t to be as keeper Gianluigi Buffon was equal to the task, deflecting it over the net and out of play.

That moment marked the last Zidane highlight, but there would be one more lowlight. Minutes later, the captain was sent off for an ugly incident where he head-butted Materazzi in the chest. To be sure it was an unsettling way for a legend to make his last march from the pitch.

But the game went on, and into penalty kicks where the Italians, not known for their decisiveness from the mark, were perfect in five attempts.

Andrea Pirlo, Materazzi, Daniele De Rossi, Alessandro Del Piero scored for Italy, while Sylvain Wiltord, Eric Abidal and Willy Sagnol netted for France.

But the difference was a blown strike from David Trezeguet, which hit the crossbar and bounced down and away from the cage.

The miss set up Fabio Grosso’s final attempt, and man who scored the winning goal against Germany in the semis would be the hero again, slipping his shot by Fabien Barthez and crowning Italy the 2006 FIFA World Cup champions.

It was the first penalty shootout in a final since the 1994 World Cup, when Italy lost to Brazil in the U.S.A.

Here’s a list of the World Cup winners since the tournament’s inception:

2006 — Italy 1 France 1 (Italy won 5-3 on penalties)

2002 — Brazil 2 Germany 0

1998 — France 3 Brazil 0

1994 — Brazil 0 Italy 0 (Brazil won 3-2 on penalties)

1990 — West Germany 1 Argentina 0

1986 — Argentina 3 West Germany 2

1982 — Italy 3 West Germany 1

1978 — Argentina 3 Netherlands 1 (extra time)

1974 — West Germany 2 Netherlands 1

1970 — Brazil 4 Italy 1