Italy crowned:

BERLIN: Italy won the World Cup in a penalty shoot-out, beating France 5-3 yesterday after a 1-1 draw through 120 minutes.

David Trezeguet hit the crossbar with France’s second spot kick to give Italy their fourth World Cup title, and Fabio Grosso made the deciding kick.

Andrea Pirlo, Marco Materazzi, Daniele De Rossi and Alessandro Del Piero also scored for Italy. Sylvain Wiltord, Eric Abidal and Willy Sagnol scored for France.

“It’s incredibly emotional, words cannot hardly describe it,” Grosso said. “Maybe we still don’t realise what we have achieved. We really wanted to win and in the end we made it.”

It was the first penalty shootout in a final since the 1994 World Cup. Brazil beat Italy 3-2 in that match.

“I’ve won many championships, many scudetti (Italian league titles), but a joy so big I have never felt,” Italy coach Marcello Lippi said. “It is the greatest joy, absolutely.”

Italy hosted the World Cup in 1990 but lost to Argentina on penalties in the semi-finals. West Germany beat the Argentines in the final while Italy took third.

“Germany won the World Cup in Italy and now we have come here and won it,” Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro said. “No one would have imagined it at the start of the World Cup, but we have won so we’re happy.”

Zinedine Zidane gave France the lead in the seventh minute with a penalty, and Materazzi equalised 12 minutes later.

Zidane, playing his farewell game at 34, was sent off for savagely headbutting Materazzi in the chest in an off-the-ball incident 10 minutes from the penalty shoot-out.

“Zidane being sent off changed everything because even in extra time the Italian team was waiting for only one thing and that was penalties,” France coach Raymond Domenech said.

“I don’t know what Materazzi said to Zidane. All I know is that the ‘Man of the Match’ is not Pirlo, it’s Materazzi,” Domenech added. “He got the equaliser and got Zidane sent off.” Despite playing with a man more, Italy could not make the difference. France’s penalty was given when winger Florent Malouda went down after a challenge from Materazzi and Cannavaro.

Instead of blasting the ball, Zidane chipped it in off the crossbar and just across the line, with goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon already down. Italy quickly equalised when Materazzi rose well above France midfielder Patrick Vieira to head home a perfectly curled corner from Pirlo in the 19th minute. Goalkeeper Fabien Barthez’s intervention was indecisive, caught between his line and the curling ball.

“This squad showed great heart,” Italy midfielder Gennaro Gattuso said. “Maybe it wasn’t pretty, but we were hard to beat.

We played each match one at a time and with great humility.”

Italy came close to taking the lead when the team exposed the French defence on corners again, but the header by Luca Toni slammed against the bar, with Barthez beaten again. And again in the 60th, France struggled to stop Italy’s attack. Toni had Barthez beaten but the goal was disallowed for offsides.

“I can’t say I’m happy just to be a finalist,” Domenech said.

The two goals and seesaw play were part of a spectacular first hour which had been predicted to be a dull, conservative match between two expert defences. Once fatigue hit the teams, it turned into a scrappy scramble for survival.

Thierry Henry went down in the opening minute when he accidentally banged his head into the shoulder of Cannavaro. He looked dazed, walked off the field under his own power, and resumed play after a few minutes. In the fourth minute, Gianluca Zambrotta was given a yellow card for a late tackle on Vieira just outside the area.

“We prepared exactly how we needed to to be at the top. You could see that in the second half and in extra time,” Domenech said. “Once again we were largely superior to our opponents.”

Sagnol was given a yellow card in the 12th by referee Horacio Elizondo for entering a challenge on Grosso with his studs showing.

It quickly turned into a free-flowing final, with Italy putting together the better passing combinations and in set plays. In the 35th, defender Lilian Thuram was forced into a last-ditch tackle on Toni, who had broken through on the right.

After the disallowed header from Toni, Italy coach Marcello Lippi made two tactical changes in the 61st. He took off playmaker Francesco Totti and replaced him with De Rossi, who came back from a four-match suspension for elbowing an opponent in the first round.

Forward Vincenzo Iaquinta took the place of midfielder Simone Perrotta. Just after the changes, Buffon made a save on a 10-metre shot from Henry in the 63rd.

Zidane temporarily went off in the 80th holding his right arm after a challenge from Cannavaro and needed medical attention. But his career did not end with injury as he came back on to the cheers of the French in the stands one minute later.

With all players visibly tiring, Lippi took off winger Mauro Cammoranesi in the 86th to bring on Del Piero, who scored the second goal in the 2-0 semifinal victory over Germany.

In the first half of extra time, France winger Franck Ribery was replaced by Trezeguet, who scored the winner in the 200 European Championship final over Italy.

In the second half of extra time, Henry surprisingly went off for veteran forward Wiltord.

Almost immediately afterward, Zidane and Materazzi got into an argument and seemingly unprovoked, the star player went fully head forward into the defender.

At first it was not spotted by the referee but after consultation with the fourth official, Elizondo whipped out the red card for Zidane.

Thuram made his 122nd international appearance alongside William Gallas in the centre of France’s defence. Thuram also ends his international career after the final, as does midfielder Claude Makelele. Italy won the title despite a football scandal back home that is threatening to relegate Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina.

“If the scandal hadn’t happened I think we wouldn’t have won the World Cup,” Gattuso said. “It has given us more strength.”

Lineups:

Italy: Gianluigi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta, Fabio Cannavaro, Marco Materazzi, Fabio Grosso, Mauro Camoranesi (Alessandro Del Piero, 86th), Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Simone Perrotta (Vicenzo Iaquinta, 61st), Francesco Totti (Daniele De Rossi, 61st), Luca Toni.

France: Fabien Barthez, Willy Sagnol, Lilian Thuram, William Gallas, Eric Abidal, Patrick Vieira (Alou Diarra, 56th), Claude Makelele, Franck Ribery (David Trezeguet,100th), Florent Malouda, Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry (Sylvain Wiltord, 107th).

(AP)