Even without the photo above, this needs no mentioning nor reminding...Italy are the World Cup winners of 2006. If you didn't already know, they beat France 4-2 on penalties after holding them to a 1-1 draw in normal and extra time.

June 9th it was - at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, where pre-match favourites France, after sending Portugal packing in the previous round through a Zinedine Zidane penalty, met Italy, who condemned hosts Germany to a cruel defeat with 2 goals in the last 2 mins of extra time from Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero.

The French couldn't have wished for a better start when on 7 minutes, Marco Materazzi brought Florent Malouda down in the penalty area. Horacio Elizondo, the referee who controversially sent off Wayne Rooney 2 rounds ago, gave the penalty much to the dismay of the Italians but joy to the French. Up stepped Zinedine Zidane and he duly obliged, chipping cheekily into the Italian net though he was given a big slice of luck as it shaved the crossbar just nicely for it to bounce over the line and out. The Italians thought it was on the line JUST..the referee thought otherwise and it was 1-0 to the French.

Their joy were shortlived however as Italy pulled 1 back. An Andrea Pirlo corner was met with deadly accuracy by Marco Materazzi, who jumped high, very high in fact, above Patrick Vieria to power a header past Fabian Barthez.

After this, France and Italy combined to give spectators of both sides, as well as football romantics, argaubly the best 45minutes of World Cup Final football since 1998. Both teams attacked with purpose, flair and vision, not forgetting the strong defences held by veterans Thuram for the French and captain/centenarian for the day Cannavaro for the Italians.

France started the 2nd half the same way they ended it, with Henry and Ribery and a visibly-drained Zizou tearing into the Italian defence. Drift past tight markings of Cannavaro and Materazzi? No worries, Gianluca Zambrotta, VERY pacey winger-turned-defender of Juventus fame, will bail you out with his runs back from NOWHERE apparently, OR if all else fails, try getting past Gigi Buffon, who had the undisputed record of not conceding a goal from opposition within open play. Eventually, frustration slowly seeped into the French players as unnecessary fouls were committed.

On the contrary, the Italians reverted back to their usual style of football - Catenaccio football - soaking up every ounce of pressure the French threw at them and then hitting them hard on the counter-attack. Luca Toni almost punishing slack defending and lack of personnel at the back when he headed past Barthez off a Fabio Grosso free-kick, only for the linesman to correctly flag him offside.

So it ended 1-1 on normal time, with 30mins of excruciating football to be played. As expected, both teams surely must be feeling the pressure. Same tactics and employment were maintained. What was unexpected though, was a incident involving both goalscorers of normal time. 110 minutes on the clock it was when an aerial ball came into the Italian half and Materazzi was challenging Zidane for the ball. The Inter Milan defender tugged at the shirt of Zizou and the ball passed them both. Nothing seem to happen and both parties walked away...only for Zidane to turn around suddenly and head-butt Materazzi out of no apparent reason. The referee and linesmen missed it and let play go on, against the Italians' remonstrations. The 4th official, however, caught it and informed the officials on the pitch through intercom. After much thought and questioning, Elizondo flashed the red-card to Zidane and it was over. The career of arguably the greatest player to grace the football pitch this generation went down the train, albeit in shame rather than glory...letting his team-mates and arguably all of France down with the barbaric action of his. France had to hold on for 10 more minutes.

Baggio missed in USA'94. Cue Trezeguet Germany'06..

Trezeguet distraught after missing his spot-kick.

Daniele De Rossi, Sylvian Wiltord, Alessandro Del Piero & Eric Abidjal all scored after that to make it 3-2, with Fabio Grosso stepping up to take the penultimate penalty. Score and Italy will be champions for the 4th time. Miss and un-necessary pressure will be heaped upon them while France will take their spot-kick with all the confidence in the world.

Fairy-tale ending for Zizou and co. was not to be, as Grosso was calmness personified. Firing it hard and accurately into the top-right corner, he showed that you don't have to combine flair and accuracy to score a a good penalty.