World Cup Germany Update 7

It's down to the final four, four nations among which three are condsidered giants of the game and have won the World Cup before (Italy 3 times, Germany 3 times & France once). Germany wanted the cup so badly; the reward for putting on such a great world cup surely must be a victory in the holiest grial of them all. Italy stood in their way and it would prove to be a road-block that the Germans's could not push over. The Italians dreaded a penalty shoot-out, knowing fully well that their record in the Russian roulette was poor. And the Germans are almost 100% perfection in them. As the games finished the 90 minute mark 0-0, the Italians grew tense. They needed to score and finish the game off in extra-time. And score they did, two wonderfully struck goals by Brosso & Del Piero nailed the win for the Azzuri 2-0 in Dortmund.

The next day, France faced off against Portugal in Munich. The French wanted to go further and erase the memories of the last tournament. Portugal comes in having failed in previous outings to even get to the tournament, despite always having star quality players. Out of their golden generation of skilled & successful players (atleast in club competition), only Luis Figo remains. So the stage was set for two teams with a point to prove. It started off well, with attacking coming from both sides. A penalty scored by Zidane would prove to be the winner and only goal as a jaded and tired French side limited Portugal to long range shots that either goalie Barthez or the excellent French defence blocked. Zidane looks to lift the cup as captain (in '98 Didier Deschamps was the captain) and give his countrymen another big celebration.



Song for the day - "Slang" - DEF LEPPARD