France Set Up Final Date With Italy

Posted by footynut in July 6th, 2006

France have defied all odds to set up a final date in Berlin against a resurgent Italy.
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Newspapers all over France were in praise of their heroes,especially Zidane who scored the winning goal via a penalty.

This must have evoked memories for the french,memories of 8 years ago when they succesfully won the World Cup.

Many,including me,never ever thought France would get this far,they really didn’t produce any sort of ‘magic’ or displays that would have shown a glimpse of what is to come,in fact before the finals they looked like a team that had passed it..that have no hope of even reaching the second round,yet above and beyond all expectations they have sent hot favourites Spain-Brazil-Portugal crashing out of the tournament,and they did it with style,they did it playing vibrant football they didn’t have the ‘defend’ mentality…they went all out,they attacked went they had a chance and they defended (very well) when they had to.

In last night’s game,France overcame Portugal 1-0,thanks to a Zidane penalty who effectively also showed England how to take a penalty and how to beat Ricardo.

Portugal had the chunk of possesion,but once again it’s prove that is not how much possesion you have but rather what you do with it,and for once i believe Scolari got his tactics wrong,he didn’t take a gamble when he insisted of having more midfielders instead of an out and out stiker even towrads the end of the second half.

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We’ve seen people like Marcello Lippi,who for goodness sake placed 4 strikers in the final moments against Germany…and did it work?…boy it did!,this year’s tournaments has proven that those who are willing to take the risk will be rewarded.

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Even Brazil playes a cautious game,especially against France when they had ‘the best’ strike force any team could ask for…and they paid the price for not taking risks.

Zidane’s moments of magic were often overshadowed in Munich by the obvious ill-feeling between the two teams.

The dark arts of diving, play-acting and intimidating the officials were all on display.

After the match Cristiano Ronaldo slammed the referee for his ‘mistakes’,but really the ref handled the game really well,and i must said that more than once i’ve seen the Portugese DIVING,yes they did especially Cristiano Ronaldo,which is a shame to see.The French players barely even touched them yet they fell as if they were shot by one of North Korea’s Taepodong-2 rockets.

So congrats to the French who has answered all their critics well,and have set up a repeat of the Euro 2000 Final where Italy painfully lost to a golden goal by Trezeguet.

For all the French have done,i believe this is Italy’s year,they deserve to win the cup,they played well…and all the best.

2 more games to go..than World Cup ends…