Italy vs. France

Stargal

France

Argh, why is Gattuso not wearing any shorts?!! Dear God, that is some horrible looking underwear!

Trampas

France

They will.

ZZ done because of the tv he shouldn't be sent off then.

He deserve to go

Earthhorse

France

I'm glad Italy won. They deserved it over the course of the tournament if not the night itself.

mike65

ZZ done because of the tv he shouldn't be sent off then.

He deserve to go

Eh Make your mind up.

Mike.

Necronomicon

France

Excellent

Pigman II

I love that trophy

MisterAnarchy

Better team lost the final.
Italy gave up attacking at half time.
A poor end to a sub standard World Cup.

Necronomicon

France

If ever a captain deserved to lift the trophy....

PHB

France

Well deserved over the tourney I think.
France may have been better in the 2nd half, but Italy have been the best team in this tourney.

Cannavaro deserves to lift that cup, incredible player!

p.s. got them at 11-1, so I'm very happy

Trampas

France

mike65 wrote:

Eh Make your mind up.

Mike.

He was right to be sent off but none of the officials seen it but then the 4th official sees it on the big screen.

That is wrong about the sending off.

Stargal

France

Trampas wrote:

He was right to be sent off but none of the officials seen it but then the 4th official sees it on the big screen.

That is wrong about the sending off.

That's completely wrong - the 4th official did see it, but I'm guessing he didn't want to ruin Zidane's swansong by sending him off. It was because Buffon went over to him and protested it that he acknowledged it; so when the ref went over to him it only took 2 seconds to decide that it was a red card.

mike65

That's completely wrong - the 4th official did see it, but I'm guessing he didn't want to ruin Zidane's swansong by sending him off. It was because Buffon went over to him and protested it that he acknowledged it; so when the ref went over to him it only took 2 seconds to decide that it was a red card.

Thats nonsense, players are always arguing the toss with refs but they don't listen. The forth officeal had a word in his ear.

The forth offical has that power as the ref misses some stuff (shock horror!) while the linesmen are useless as a rule.

Mike.

Davei141

Shouldnt you just be happy he made the right decision? no?

dudara

Thankfully Gattuso put some pants on!!

Superb penalty taking on both sides, a great end to what wasn't the best final ever.

I'm delighted with Italy winning. Overall, I feel they deserve it more. And what celebrations!

therecklessone

France

Trampas wrote:

He was right to be sent off but none of the officials seen it but then the 4th official sees it on the big screen.

Nobody knows that for sure.

smemon

France

typical french behaviour.

zidane should be fined heavily imo. had wanted france to win purely to see zidane go out in style. in the end was willing italy to win.

idiotic behaviour from zidane, no excuses. any captain who does that in a world cup final, doesnt deserve to be on the winning side.

daveirl

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A Dub in Glasgo

France

GIF of Zidane

http://img303.imageshack.us/img303/7613/zidane3fd6sm7zs4ng.gif

acquiescefc

that was some headbutt. Mustve really hurt witht the force.

People usually get sent off for headbutts that are just little taps, he knocked him off his feet.

Im pretty gutted about the whole thing, I reckon England coulda dealt with any of those two if it wasnt for the dirty portuguese.

But overall I reckon Italy did enough, France couldnt compete in the second half

mike65

Annoyingly Zidane can't get a ban!

Mike.

therecklessone

France

daveirl wrote:

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They were bo**oxed tired.

daveirl

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Royale with Cheese

France

acquiescefc wrote:

But overall I reckon Italy did enough, France couldnt compete in the second half

What the hell are you talking about? France were by far the better team in the second half.

therecklessone

France

acquiescefc wrote:

Im pretty gutted about the whole thing, I reckon England coulda dealt with any of those two if it wasnt for the dirty portuguese.

Jesus, the final was bad enough as it was...;)

daveirl

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Ponster

acquiescefc wrote:

But overall I reckon Italy did enough, France couldnt compete in the second half

Italy hardly touched the ball in the 2nd half.

A Dub in Glasgo

France

acquiescefc wrote:

reckon England coulda dealt with any of those two if it wasnt for the dirty portuguese.

Delusion takes over. England were rubbish & It was Rooney who stamped on a player :eek:

daveirl

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Pepe LeFrits

Deeply dissappointing end to the WC. Italy reverted to type and were shocking bar 30 mins in the first half. They played well against Germany and were decent against Ghana and Czech Rep... and that's it. Still, £40 for me

France didn't commit enough players forward. Don't get what all the Henry slagging is about - he was totally isolated all game and still managed to make a few chances for himself and his teammates. Why isn't he running on to the cross from Ribery? Er, 'cos he's fuvking bollixed that's why.

Zidane, ahahah. What an infamous way to end his career. Bet he enjoyed it immensely, he'll regret it a tadge now though. Still the best player since Maradona.

Makelele was my MOTM tonight, incidently.

applehunter

Italy better 1st half.

France better 2nd half.

Argentina were the best team of the World Cup.

YeatsCounty

France

I'm delighted that Italy did it at last. Hopefully they'll have to change their shirt logo now to accomodate the fourth star, I'm not too fond of their current badge.....

Davei141 wrote:

You shouldnt really speculate, its not fair on materazzi.

Pfft, it wouldn't be the first time that Materazzi has done something like that in order to incite an opponent. Not saying he called Zidane an Arab (although if he did, Zidane should come out and say it to the media) but he has done stuff like this before. He was mouthing off to Shevchenko during the 2004/2005 CL match with Milan just before Sheva headbutted him. He's not the cleanest player around, and it seemingly extends to his vocabulary.

Link to the headbutt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBV52GPhNjw

Necronomicon

France

Ah, I'll miss Apres Match as much as the football

Hagar

You can take the man out of Marseilles but you can't take the Marseilles out of the man.
After watching every match for a month I wanted to turn of the TV I was so appalled.

Royale with Cheese

France

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

France didn't commit enough players forward. Don't get what all the Henry slagging is about - he was totally isolated all game and still managed to make a few chances for himself and his teammates. Why isn't he running on to the cross from Ribery? Er, 'cos he's fuvking bollixed that's why.

Would definitely agree with that. Alot of Henry haters on this forum, or maybe just people still pissed off with the face holding incident. He did well when he had the ball. I wouldn't treat their opinion as the be all and end all but skysports.com gave him an 8.

PHB

France

Henry played the best I've ever seen him play tonight for France, but within that system, he will never look like a good player.
My criticisms of him are not related to his football ability (well not during this WC anyway)

Drapper

France

well done italy !!

wheres me jumpa

A weird feeling left after watching that game. Wasnt a great game and Zidane, one of the most gifted players I have seen in my lifetime ends his career in disgrace. So a bit of an anti climax.

Over the course of the tournament Italy deserved it imo.

Cannavaro was an absolute joy to watch.

Kulgan

Hah bizarre to see him do that after the Tom Humphries piece on Zidane in the Times yesterday

Fanny Cradock

France

daveirl wrote:

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so the winners should be the team who isn't tired after 45 mins? utter rot!

well doner italy. over the course of the tournament they played beter than france

BOHSBOHS

materazzi said : "here zidane , ure past it , u will never play for everton now"


zidane should get a life ban from fifa even if hes retiring.
worse thing ive ever seen on a footy pitch
and with a cupla billion people watching.

Anam

An odd match to say the least,I thought France were the better side,they looked to have more conviction in attack.Unlucky that Vieira was injured and an absolute shame for Zidane to be sent off(he deserved it,but i really dislike Materazzi,i think he's a dirty player and probably said something really out of line)


Its just a shame for Zizou,the greatest player I've ever seen,to end his career like this.He's been the best player of his generation and to be sent off like this in his last game was such a shock.


As for Henry,i though he played fairly well tonight,dont think he can be criticised that much,the system didnt suit him and he was still threatening.

wheres me jumpa

BOHSBOHS wrote:

materazzi said : "here zidane , ure past it , u will never play for everton now"


zidane should get a life ban from fifa even if hes retiring.
worse thing ive ever seen on a footy pitch
and with a cupla billion people watching.

Not the worst I have seen. Ive seen Matterazzi do just as bad on a field.

adox

Stargal

France

Just on an aside: the commentary on RTE has been excellent - Gilesy, Brady, Dunphy and Souness were great. Apres Match too - if I hadn't been drinking so much then I'd come up with some more superlatives to describe it, but I'll settle for saying that that too has been er, excellent.

Pigman II

adox wrote:

On a scale of 1 to 10 I give that sub-zero.

Dave Larkin

France

For a player of his class, it was a petty act of senseless anger. Something that should not be seen on a football pitch ever.

bohsman

France

Fair play to the 5+ people who voted for Italy to win the World Cup after the shootout.

evad_lhorg

France

zidane loafed him for one of these two reasons.....

the insane nipple cripple he got or... materazzi said "Last night i had your entire family in my room including your wife and your oul lad was the best"

nlgbbbblth

While Zidane had to go it's unfortunate that the system of 'punish the retaliator not the person who started the fight' continues.

Why wasn't Materazzi booked / sent off also?

MisterAnarchy

Gotta say I feel for France.
They knocked Spain,Brazil and Portugal out ,all in normal time.
Italy scored a 94th minute dubious penalty to beat Australia,they played a putred Ukraine team , and they failed to score against a German team in normal time.
Italy were very limited and went back to their negative attitude .
Sad to see them win the final