Italy has it

[JM]

so, does anyone care hugely, unless u had italy in a sweep?

still, well done all the same

[hr]

"Life can be full of many problems"; this can be translated into "tormenting you is how the big man gets his jollies"

[Fozzy Bear]

i thought they played better for the 1st half. zidane's headbutt totally put me off france winning though. until that point i was backing france.

nice one italy, they finally broken their curse on penalties.

[hr]

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality through not dying." - Woody Allen

[Jam-bo]

Quite strange that Zidane had a reaction like that to whatever was said. A player of his experience shouldn't act like that, regardless of any situation. What will be interesting is what the Italian player said to him. But we'll never really know...

Good work Italy though. Fairly average team that have done well, played hard and done what was needed. Maybe that is what is needed, instead of big-headed, over-paid, trained monkeys... like Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo (well, he's more of a trimmed Mandril)

[bramble]

Sooo glad Italy won, yay! Dont have any ties particularly to Italy but Bedford (the town in which i live) has the biggest Italian population in the UK outside of London and its lovely to hear all the horns beeping and see everyone so happy
As for the match, its a shame it went to penalties, always the cruellest way to lose if youre on the losing side and France generally looked better but Zidane was total idiot! What a stupid way to end his international career

[hr]

Ich will die Ruhe stören...

[Cain]

Hoorah!

[hr]

I hold an element of surprise

[Cain]

Short of invading Russia in the winter, can anybody think of anything stupider than this?



[hr]

I hold an element of surprise

[Freaker]

So disappointed. What Zidane did was most ridiculous, but I do wonder what Materazzi must have said to make a man of his experience flip like that (after all, Zidane was walking away from him at that point...) - certainly nothing worthy of any praise, either.

I was for France, until the end. They played better for most of the game. Italians crawling around on the floor after any minor tackle to waste a little time are not exactly my thing.

I could get hung up on Italy being the team with the most dives this cup, one of the team with the most fouls and details like that, but I'm biased anyways. They lost my sympathy when systematically campaigning to kick Frings out of the semi-final.

A good game, and Italy was one of the best teams of the cup. Congratulations to them. For me their victory will always have a bad after-taste of pretense, luck and somewhat of arrogance, too, unfortunately.

[hr]

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.

[Jam-bo]

Looking at this so repeatedly, it is amazing that footballers are such drama queens! I mean, it's bad what Zidane has done, but watch the leg flick of the Italian!

[Haunted]

Italy, for me, was the lesser of two evils, and I'm glad they've done it.

Zidanes display just sealed the deal.

And with all the domestic crap Italy have at the moment, they need this

[hr]

Now with 100% more corn

[Eskimo]

Do you not think this is the hypocrisy of Football now though. Not that I in any way condone what Zidane did but it couldn't have been unprovoked. Materazzi must have insulted him or his background in some way which goes against all of FIFA's supposed code of ethics. They have been saying for so long that they want to get rid of the cheats but while people are still getting away with it they never will. Zidane's reaction was terrible but would never have happened if Materazzi hadn't opened his mouth.

[Paranoid]

I bet ya he said "I'm gonna eat your kids!"

Worked for Tyson...


...and Fat Bastard for that matter...

[hr]

..I've got this pain down all the diodes on my left side...

[Odysseus]

Rumour has it that Materazzi made a comment about Zidane's terminally ill mother. If that's the case, I'm not going to criticise him one bit. If anything, he should have headbutted him in the face.

Incidently, this isn't the first time Zidane has headbutted someone during a game. He's done it at Juventus, and at Cannes (after being racially abused) so he probably has some reason.

[hr]

Walk into the bright lights of sorrow, oh drink a bit of wine and we both might go tommorow, my love...

[blah]

if you look before the incident, you can see Materazzi pinching ZZ's chest. Pulling hairs maybe?

[Guest]

france and italy played equally well (while italy dominated first half and france the second). The fouls seemed evenly spread between the teams. I was for Italy throughout the entire game, but I hated how they had to win through penalty shots - if I had my way I would've had them play until someone scored.

[I do know Bono]

I've never understood why stuff that happens on a football pitch seems immune from prosecution.

If I'd been headbutted like that in the street and I knew who had done it I'd get the police involved.

GBH is GBH...even during the World Cup Final.

[rubbermuffin]

I put a fiver on two teams to win the World Cup before the tournament started.

One was Holland (17/1).
The other was Italy at 11/1.

Get in.

[hr]

'If something has to change then it always does'

[Odysseus]

Quoting I do know Bono from 07:47, 10th Jul 2006
I've never understood why stuff that happens on a football pitch seems immune from prosecution.

Duncan Ferguson spent 4 months in prison for a headbutt while at Rangers. Mind you, he was given a custodial sentence because he was already out on probation for another headbutt...

Although he clearly headbutted Materazzi, to suggest that Zidane should be jailed for that is laughable. By that rationale, every player who has put in a dirty challange should be jailed too? Should Rooney be jailed for stamping on someone? No. Get a grip!

[hr]

Walk into the bright lights of sorrow, oh drink a bit of wine and we both might go tommorow, my love...

[Odysseus]

Quoting I do know Bono from 07:47, 10th Jul 2006
I've never understood why stuff that happens on a football pitch seems immune from prosecution.

Duncan Ferguson spent 4 months in prison for a headbutt while at Rangers. Mind you, he was given a custodial sentence because he was already out on probation for another headbutt...

Although he clearly headbutted Materazzi, to suggest that Zidane should be jailed for that is laughable. By that rationale, every player who has put in a dirty challange should be jailed too? Should Rooney be jailed for stamping on someone? No. Get a grip!

[hr]

Walk into the bright lights of sorrow, oh drink a bit of wine and we both might go tommorow, my love...

[exnihilo]

And, after all, if Channel 4 News is in any way reflective of the public mood, Zidane's sending off was "a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions". Have I said before that some perspective needs to be applied? I mean, for fuck's sake!

[Malcolm]

I'm going to get crucified for this, but...

Personally, I think Zidane's just a French Wayne Rooney. He's up there on his own, expected to score goal after goal after goal, but when he gets injured/sent off, the rest of the team breaks and falls apart. The French attack just collapsed completely after he was gone, nobody even tried. The same happened to England against Portugal, Peter Crouch just didn't have what it took up there on his own. Even Michael Owen said Rooney needed more support up front, and the lack of support probably lead to him doing the dirty which got him sent off.

The French relied on Zidane too much in the same way England relied on Rooney (and also Beckham, in all honesty). And that isn't good IMHO, the rest of the team need to pull their weight and give support.