All the adjectives are for just one player Zizou. He mesmerized us, take us on the journey of dreamland and then all of sudden dumped us into the debris of a castle destroyed by the very emperor who fondly made it. It was supposed to be Zizou swansong and it all began in earnestness, a 7th minute lucky penalty provides the emperor an opportunity to leave his mark on the last match of his glittering career. He didnt disappointed us, in fact he graced us with the something not even his old club mate Buffon could think of - a chip penalty hitting the crossbar and crossing the line while coming down. It was both calmness and class personified. The match needed an early goal to make the Italians come out of their defensive shell and try to equalize. They didnt lose much time in doing so. So far so solid French defense was asked aerial questions by Pirlo and Luca Toni. In 19th minute the French finally surrendered, from a beautifully taken corner Metarazzi rose above all beating Viera in air and stamped the ball home. One One and all to play for again. For next 25 minutes the Italians were all over the park and giving French no room to breathe. Toni struck the bar with another promising header and later only thwarted by Thurams beautiful tackle to have a one on one situation with Bartheiz. After the break the game spun on its head, French came out as if they are the youngest team on the planet and made the Italians run for their money. Henry made a brilliant run past three defenders to see his shot blocked by Buffon. Minutes later he again combined well with Ribery to go past two defenders but the shot was too weak to trouble Goalkeeper of the tournament Buffon. After an injury to Viera and his subsequent substitution, the French edge in the midfield reduced resulting in match slowly and gradually going to extra- time. Even in the extra time the French started brightly certainly giving the impression that the so called Team of Grandpas has more in tank than the Italians. In first 15 minutes of extra time the French had two beautiful opportunities. First Ribery had a wonderful one-two with Henry but unable to bend his shot on far post, missing it by inches. Minutes later Zidane made a beautiful run from the middle which was beautifully spotted by Sagnol. His inch perfect cross was fiercly headed toward goal by Zidane much like his two 1998 final goals but this time around Buffon was in the way. He made probably the save of his life, if not difficulty wise than certainly in terms of the grandeur of the occasion. In the second half of extra time the unimaginable happened, with ten minutes to go Zidane head butted Metarazzi. We were suddenly exposed to the ugly side of the Genius. Zizou was shown red card with that French hope of being twice world cup winner went of window. To most French what happened afterwards was peripheral, Italy went on to become World Champions in penalty shootouts. |
