Article 5 — Euro 04 & Germany 06
Before I begin on Euro 2004, allow me to re-visit World Cup 02. Controversy in Italy’s matches began in the 2nd match against Croatia itself when a legitimate goal was disallowed before Vieri opened the scoring. Milan Rapaic’s winner for Croatia had a huge slice of luck as it looped off Marco Materazzi into the back of the net. Then in injury time, Materazzi’s long ball from his own half was missed by everyone before beating the goalkeeper for what seemed to be the equaliser. It was again ruled out for a pull by Inzaghi on the Croatian defender’s jersey. It looked to me like they were both grappling and it could have been ignored but then again you would say I am biased. Watch the highlights below and judge it for yourself:
Giovanni Trapattoni kept his job thanks to these controversial incidences against Italy. After a shaky start to the Euro 2004 qualifiers, where Italy won 1, lost 1 and drew 1 in their first 3 games, Italy won 5 in a row to qualify top of the group 4 points clear. The squad for Euro 2004 was similar to the one 2 years before. Paolo Maldini had retired from international football so there was a new captain in Fabio Cannavaro. Andrea Pirlo was selected for the first time in an international tournament and was one of the youngest players in the squad. The youngest player though was a precariously talented 21-year-old, Antonio Cassano nicknamed the “next Baggio”.
I missed the first match against Denmark, confident that Italy would have enough to beat the Danes but that was not the case. The match ended 0–0 but Francesco Totti was retrospectively punished for the vile act of spitting at Christian Poulsen during the match. He was suspended for 3 matches and it was to mark the end of his participation in the tournament.
Italy played Sweden next needing a win to get back on track for qualification from the group stage. Cassano was given his opportunity to start in Totti’s absence and he didn’t disappoint. He scored Italy’s only goal in the game however, a 1–0 lead is always a slender lead to have. With 5 minutes left, Sweden grabbed the equaliser after Italy failed to clear their lines from a corner. The ball was bouncing around in the box and Zlatan Ibrahimovic got in front of Gianluigi Buffon to hook it towards goal with an acrobatic back heel, the ball looped over Christian Vieri standing on the line for the equaliser. Another slow start in a tournament for Italy. They needed luck and favour from one of the Scandinavian teams to progress to the quarter-final.
Italy needed either Denmark or Sweden to win or play out a draw higher than 1–1 when they played each other and they needed to win their own match against bottom team Bulgaria. As luck would have it, Denmark and Sweden played out a 2–2 draw while Italy needed an injury-time goal by Cassano to beat Bulgaria. Italy was out of the European Championship in the group stage despite finishing level on points with Denmark and Sweden. On the face of it, Italy was unlucky but for all the talent available they should have beaten Denmark and Sweden before the final match of the group.
Another disappointing exit, another exit shrouded by controversy but in reality, I felt Italy under-performed. The team should have been playing better and not enough of Italy’s star players produced. The biggest disappointment was Totti of course who I felt let the team down by committing his despicable act. I understand he was provoked but he should have channelled it into his performance on the pitch. Cassano was a rare bright spark for Italy.
Trapattoni’s time as Italy’s manager was up. Another legendary manager and serial winner in Marcello Lippi was appointed to replace him. Personally, I don’t have a good opinion on him after his time at Inter which I will touch on when I recount my time as an Inter fan. For Italy, he had to make good of a generation that had a lot of potential and have done well at club level but not performed as well for the national team in international tournaments.
Italy qualified from their group in typical fashion, some underwhelming results aside, quite comfortably top of the group. Despite beating Holland and Germany in impressive fashion in 2 pre-World Cup friendlies, there wasn’t much riding on Italy going into the tournament. As the team prepared for the World Cup, a match-fixing scandal called Calciopoli erupted in Italy.
Neutrals wrote Italy off saying the players will be distracted by what was going on in Italy and they spoke about the age of the players in the squad. Serie A was also no longer the best league in Europe.
My experience with Italy tells me that when there is little riding on the team, that is when we are the most dangerous and stand a very good chance of doing well. I was quietly confident but I knew I could be proved wrong so took it one game at a time.
Italy’s squad was now a progression from 1998 when the first crop of young ones made it into the selection for an international tournament until now. The core group of players has remained the same. Alberto Gilardino and Daniele De Rossi were the youngest and freshest members in the squad. Cassano lost his way after his big-money move to Real Madrid, Vieri was on the decline in terms of form and fitness and he missed out due to an injury.
There was space for a late bloomer called Luca Toni who was Italy’s top scorer during the qualifiers. Italy got off to a great start in the tournament against a tricky opponent in Ghana, winning 2–0. In the next match against USA, with expectations high on an Italian win, Italy drew 1–1 and had De Rossi sent off for an elbow on American striker Brian McBride, a typical result considering the expectations. Italy needed to win the final match against one of the favourites to go through from the group, Czech Republic.
The Czechs had surprisingly lost to Ghana in their previous match and were dispatched by Italy in a comfortable 2–0 win. I was nervous approaching this game recounting the defeat to the same opponents in 1996 as well as other bad experiences of failing to qualify from the group in 1996, 2004 for failing to win the last game of the season or qualifying by the skin of the teeth as we did in 1994 and 2002. Thankfully, it was a comfortable win to ease the nerves.
However, Italy lost Nesta early in this game through injury and that was a blow. He faced a race against time to be fit to play any part in the tournament.
In the 2nd Round, Italy played against Australia managed by the same manager that masterminded Italy’s shock but controversial exit in 2002, Guus Hiddink. Italy had a tough time against the Australians as it was largely a back against the wall kinda performance for Italy. It was made worse by the harsh sending off of Materazzi who I felt got sent off on the basis of his reputation rather than his action. Italy carried little threat going forward but deep into injury time, a run forward by Fabio Grosso into the penalty box brought some reward as he was brought down for a penalty.
The Australians felt it was a soft penalty to give away but I felt it was justice for the harsh sending off that Italy got. Francesco Totti stepped up to convert the spot-kick and luckily for Italy, they progressed to the quarter-final. Italy had got out of jail. Up to this point, Lippi had been utilising a 4–3–1–2 formation but from quarter-final onwards, Lippi made a critical switch to 4–4–2 to bring some balance to the team.
Without Nesta and Materazzi, one of the younger members of the team, Andrea Barzagli was thrown into the action in their quarter-final against one of the surprise teams of the World Cup, debutants Ukraine. Italy recorded their biggest win of this World Cup beating the Eastern European team 3–0.
The semi-final was going to be a massive test for this Italy. They were pitted against fellow 3-times champions and hosts, Germany. Germany had knocked out one of the favourites in Argentina in the quarter-final and have now emerged as one of the favourites themselves to win the World Cup on home soil as they did in 1974.
This is a new, rejuvenated Germany playing more expansively than they have ever done or were known to play. The odds were stacked against Italy despite their good record against the Germans in World Cup matches. The match ended 0–0 over 90 minutes with Germany doing most of the pushing for the 90 minutes. However, Lippi flipped the game on its head with a tactical switch in extra-time by introducing 2 forwards to join the 2 forwards already present at the end of regulation time.
Suddenly, Italy became more dangerous in their attacks and pressed harder. Their efforts were rewarded when Pirlo’s beautiful no-look pass found one of the revelations of the World Cup and the Italian team, left-back Fabio Grosso in acres of space on the right. Grosso curled his shot past Lehmann to give Italy the lead to cue Tardelli-like celebrations from Grosso.
With Germany now pushing hard to equalise, they left Italy lots of space to attack on the counter-attack and on one break led by Gilardino, he laid it off for Del Piero to deliver his trademark curling shot into the top corner, one of the rare moments in an international tournament where we have seen Del Piero produce what he normally does week in, week out for Juventus. Italy upset the odds as they did in 2000 against co-hosts of Euro 2000 Holland to qualify for the final, as luck would have it, against France.
The final was between two teams that on paper were ageing. It was to be the last chance saloon for many of Italy’s players to win something on the international stage and there is no prize bigger than the World Cup. It was also a final opportunity for France’s stars to add a second World Cup to their CV. The final was evenly poised.
My last 2 memories of Italy vs France in an international tournament have not been good, a defeat on penalties in 1998 and a heart-breaking Golden Goal defeat in the final of 2000. France, at this stage, was my international rival and really, really wanted Italy to beat them. However, I was not sure if the Italian players had enough about them to cross this hurdle. Would luck be on our side? Luck plays a part too in winning or losing a tournament and it deserted us in 1994 and 2000.
Italy got off to a terrible start as they conceded a penalty early in the game. Zinedine Zidane, in his swansong for France, chipped his penalty, it crashed off the bar and just about crossed the line. He got away with a piece of impudent skill that nearly backfired. I was left wondering where does Italy go from this now? How would they respond?
Italy steadied themselves and got back into the game. A corner by Pirlo was headed in majestically by the villain a few moments ago for giving away a penalty, Marco Materazzi. 1–1. The set-piece route was causing France all sorts of problems as Materazzi had another header cleared off the line and Toni had his header crash off the bar. Toni thought he had scored from another wicked set-piece delivery by Pirlo but it was ruled offside. France was threatening through the direct runs of Thierry Henry and Franck Ribery. Zidane got his head onto a Willy Sagnol cross in extra-time but his header was superbly saved by Buffon.
The game then turned when famously or infamously depending on which side of the fence you are on, Zidane head-butted Materazzi in the chest in an off-the-ball incident. Zidane, the hero of 1998 final was now the villain. There was nothing to separate the teams and the match was to be decided by a penalty shootout as it was in 1998.
The only other time a World Cup final was decided by a penalty shootout was in 1994 and we know which way that went so Italy didn’t have good precedence set for them. I thought to myself surely one day our luck would change and I was praying that this was the day that luck changes.
All the penalties were immaculately taken but the fall guy would be the hero for France in 2000, David Trezeguet who crashed his penalty off the bar. Italy win the 2006 World Cup final 5–3 on penalties. Finally, I get to experience Italy winning something on the international stage. It was to be a few days of great joy; all the near-misses, disappointing exits wiped away replaced by this immense explosion of joy.
Lippi’s switch from 4–3–1–2 to 4–4–2 proved crucial to Italy’s triumph as it gave the team the balance that the team needed. Nesta was injured from the 17th minute of the 3rd game against Czech Republic and he was ably replaced by Materazzi who doesn’t get enough praise for his performances and goals in this World Cup, one against Czech Republic, another in the final and not forgetting his crucial penalty shootout conversion.
There were some trial and error in his first-team selection before settling on a defence of Gianluca Zambrotta, Fabio Cannavaro, Marco Materazzi and Fabio Grosso. The introduction of naturalised Italian, Oriundo, Mauro Camoranesi on the right flank brought the balance that was lacking. The centre midfield pairing of Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso dovetailed well counting on a partnership built on weekly club football at AC Milan.
Simone Perrotta like Grosso on the same flank was a revelation in this World Cup. Perrotta had already made a breakthrough into the national team at Euro 2004 but in this World Cup, he made a tactical breakthrough with Lippi. He was tireless moving from box to box as an unorthodox left-sided midfielder, making some great late runs into the box to create confusion for the opposition’s defence. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any goals to show for it but I really liked the way he was utilised and his performances.
There was no player that really stood out in the forward department. There was no Paolo Rossi, Salvatore Schillaci or Roberto Baggio in this team not for the lack of quality. Totti had recovered from a bad knee injury to recover in time for the tournament but had little impact outside of the penalty scored in the 2nd Round match against Australia.
Del Piero had another below-par performance again outside the wonderful goal he scored in the semi-final against Germany. Luca Toni had entered the tournament with high expectations but had only 2 goals to show for in the tournament. Filippo Inzaghi hardly played and scored only one goal while up-coming talent Alberto Gilardino only scored 1 goal too. Vicenzo Iaquinta was a workhorse for Italy without much apparent quality going forward, he too had one goal. It’s fair to say that unlike in 1982 where there was one star forward, the goals were shared throughout the team.
