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| Zidane headbutts Materazzi |
A sad end for Zidane, Fantastic play by Henry and Ribery, and Makelele was simply awesome.
Italy defended brilliantly, and both Cannavaro (who should certainly win the Golden Ball award later) and Materazzi were brilliant.
The final started with each side scoring within the first 20 minutes. Zinedine Zidane opened the scoring by converting a controversial seventh-minute penalty kick, which glanced off the underside of the crossbar and into the goal. Marco Materazzi then levelled the scores in the 19th minute following an Andrea Pirlo corner. Both teams had chances to score the winning goal in normal time, Luca Toni hit the crossbar in the 35th minute for Italy (he later had a header disallowed for offside), while France were not awarded a possible second penalty in the 53rd minute when Florent Malouda went down in the box after a tackle from Gianluca Zambrotta.
At the end of the regulation 90 minutes, the score was still level at 1–1, and the match was forced into extra time. Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon made a potentially game-saving save in extra time when he tipped a Zidane header over the crossbar. Further controversy ensued near the end of extra time, when Zidane head-butted Materazzi in the chest in an off-the-ball incident and was sent off.
Extra time produced no further goals and a penalty shootout followed, which Italy won 5–3. France's David Trezeguet, the man who scored the Golden Goal against Italy in Euro 2000 final, was the only player not to score his penalty, his spot kick hit the crossbar, landed on the goal line and went out. It was the first all-European final since Italy's triumph over West Germany in the 1982 World Cup, and the second final, after 1994, to be decided on penalties. It was also Italy's first world title in 24 years, and their fourth overall, making them the second most successful World Cup team ever. The victory also helped Italy top the FIFA World Rankings in February 2007 for the first time since November 1993.
Line Up:
Italy subtitution:
Daniele De Rossi replace Francesco Totti 61'
Vincenzo Iaquinta replace Simone Perrotta 61'
Alessandro Del Piero replace Mauro Camoranesi 86'
France subtitution:
Alou Diarra replace Patrick Vieira 56'
David Trezeguet replace Frank Ribery 100'
Sylvain Wiltord replace Thierry Henry 107'
via wikipedia.org
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