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France, Italy battle for European crown
Posted: Sunday July 02, 2000 04:14 PM
Final ScoreFrance 2, Italy 1 Extra-Time Incidents94 - Barthez leaps to kick a through pass clear just outside penalty box, as Del Piero closes in.. 95 - Hard Pires shot saved by Toldo, who bobbles slightly and catches Trezeguet's boot in his face, causing a nose-bleed. 99 - Del Piero fires high from outside box. 102- Zidane fire high on free kick. 103 - Zidane earns corner with deflection off shot on left-footed volley. Toldo grabs it at far past. 103 - GOAL. Trezeguet hammers home cross into top of goal; left-footed shot leaves Toldo no chance. Second-Half Incidents50 - Henry gets free near end line and slides pass across goalmouth, just eluding the foot of Zidane. 53 - SUBSTITUTION. Del Piero on for Fiore. 55 - Two Maldini crosses fail to connect. 56 - GOAL. Italy 1 France 0. Italy's Delvecchio. Left-footed volley from close in, off cross from right side by Pessotto. Totti heel pass to Pessotto, and Desailly misses the cross. 58 - SUBSTITUTION. France's Wiltord on for Duggary. 58 - YELLOW CARD. Thuram for foul on Totti. 59 - Totti puts Del Piero through with a good ball but he wastes the chance, shooting wide. to Barthez's left. 63 - Toldo saves six-yard angled shot from Wiltord with his feet. 66 - SUBSTITUTION. Massimo Ambrosini on for Luigi Di Biagio. 69 - Henry takes Zidane free kick in box, forcing point-blank save by Toldo. 70 - Delvecchio fires into side-netting after taking Totti chip in box. 74 - Deschamps strips Del Piero in penalty box. 75 - Totti fires wildly high on free kick from just outside box. 76 - SUBSTITUTION. Trezeguet on for Djorkaeff. 84 - Toldo bobbles Zidane corner with Desailly in his face, but recovers. 85 - Del Piero is sent through into box, forcing leg save by Barthez. 86 - France's Pires on for Lizarazu. 87 - Italy's Montella on for Delvecchio. 89 - YELLOW CARD. Totti for kicking ball away. 90 - Toldo dives to save low, near-post shot by Trezeguet. 90 - GOAL. France 1, Italy 1. Low, hard shot from Wiltord through Nesta's legs and to Toldo's left. Scored tied 0-0 at the halfROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- France and Italy were tied in a scoreless draw at half-time Sunday in the final of the European Championship. The dire match predictions were not met as Italy started out showing some attacking flair through Marco Delvecchio early on and the anointed superstar of Euro 2000 Zinedine Zidane was near invisible. France was on a quest to become the first nation to win a European championship title as a world champion and establish a soccer dynasty in the process. Italian coach Dino Zoff was trying to become the first man to win the European championship both as coach and player. He was goalkeeper on Italy's victorious 1968 squad. The start of the final was spectacular. In the first minute, Thierry Henry already showed off his speed, outpacing Mark Iuliano and sending a dangerous cross into the center, where no Frenchman was able to pick it up. Italy responded, sending Delvecchio deep and forcing Fabien Barthez to scurry out of his box and clear. The match got underway like lightning as caution was thrown to the wind. In the 5th minute, Henry surprised everyone hooking a volley from a narrow angle from 14 meters out and Francesco Toldo was lucky to see it bounce off the near post. The seesaw battle continued and three minutes later, Stefano Fiore exposed the flank of Bixente Lizarazu and floated a crossinto the middle but Delvecchio came centimeters short to connect and volley from close range. The game became more tentative from then on, and it took until the 20th minute before Didier Deschamps set the sellout crowd of 48,000 alight again with a 30-meter shot, which went over. When shots were on target, there always seemed to be Italian defender in the way to block the shot. In the 31st minute, Luigi di Biagio was given yellow for a late tackle on a surging Henry. His pace was again vital to in the 42nd minute when Cannavaro had to bring him down just outside the penalty area. It earned the Parma defender a yellow card. In the 39th minute, Henry fed a ball to Youri Djorkaeff who quickly turned but his shot never had the power to surprise Toldo. French defender Marcel Desailly was lucky to escape when he tried to elbow Cannavaro in the face just before half-time. As so often in Euro 2000, Zoff shook up his lineup, sending star striker Alessandro Del Piero back to the bench and starting a pair of AS Roma forwards together for the first time in the tournament. Francesco Totti, who Del Piero replaced in the starting lineup for the semifinal, started again against France. His Roma teammate, the little-known Marco Delvecchio, made his first start of Euro 2000 at center forward for the Azzurri in the place of the struggling Filippo Inaghi. Zoff, who has nimbly juggled his talented playmakers, gave the nod to Totti over Del Piero in the first two games and the quarterfinals. The suspended Gianluca Zambrotta, who received a red card in the semifinal against the Dutch, was replaced by the defensive-minded Gianluca Pessotto. French midfielder Emmanuel Petit started on the bench after coming down with a bout of the flu early in the weekend. Youri Djorkaeff and Christophe Dugarry, who were benched for the semifinal against Portugal, both made a return for the final. Nicolas Anelka was also left on the bench. First-Half Incidents2 - Henry breaks clear on the left but his dangerous cross fails to find a teammate. 4 - Totti nearly connects with corner from Fiore. 6 - Henry clips post with speculative shot from just outside the area which appears to catch Toldo by surprise. 8 - Good cross from the right by Fiore but Delvecchio cannot make effective contact. 17 - Albertini hits curling free kick over the bar from 20 meters. 31 - YELLOW CARD. Di Biagio cautioned on tackle from behind that could have been been a red card. 32 - Free kick cleared by Italy after goalmouth scramble. 39 - Henry cuts across middle and sends half-hit shot to Djorkaeff in the box, whose weak toe poke is easily saved by Toldo. 40 - Totti has a chance when ball falls free to him just outside the area but his shot goes wide. 42 - YELLOW CARD. Cannavaro for taking down Henry just outside 18-yard box. Zidane puts resulting free kick over the bar. Desailly appears to elbow Cannavaro in the face as Zidane takes the kick. France's Petit out; Italy's Delvecchio inROTTERDAM (Reuters) -- Midfielder Emmanuel Petit failed to recover from a heavy cold and was replaced by Christophe Dugarry in the French side to face Italy in the European Championship final on Sunday. French coach Roger Lemerre also chose to field Youri Djorkaeff from the start, leaving Real Madrid striker Nicolas Anelka on the substitutes' bench. Both Dugarry and Djorkaeff missed France's golden goal semifinal defeat of Portugal. Dugarry had a broken nose, although he said he was fit to play, and Djorkaeff was dropped. Petit, who scored the third goal in France's World Cup final victory in 1998, warmed up with the rest of the squad before the final. The changes were expected to give the world champions a slightly more defensive bias than in their last two matches. Italy's side also showed a surprise. Coach Dino Zoff opted to give AS Roma striker Marco Delvecchio his first start in eight matches following his impressive performance as a second half substitute in Italy's defeat of the Netherlands in the semifinal. Delvecchio last started for Italy in a friendly against Portugal in April and has played only twice as a substitute at Euro 2000. Francesco Totti also comes back into the team after being dropped for the match against the Dutch. Like his club teammate Delvecchio, Totti also made an immediate impact as a substitute in Amsterdam. Zoff's bold decision leaves Juventus pairing Filippo Inzaghi and Alessandro Del Piero on the bench. It should give the Italians more muscle up front and a chance of competing with French centerbacks Marcel Desailly and Laurent Blanc in the air. Juventus midfielder Gianluca Pessotto got the nod ahead of Angelo Di Livio to replace Gianluca Zambrotta, suspended after his semifinal red card. Lineups: France (4-2-3-1): 16. Fabien Barthez; 15. Lilian Thuram, 8. Marcel Desailly, 5. Laurent Blanc, 3. Bixente Lizarazu; 4. Patrick Vieira, 7. Didier Deschamps (capt); 6. Youri Djorkaeff, 10. Zinedine Zidane, 21. Christophe Dugarry; 12. Thierry Henry Italy (3-5-2): 12. Francesco Toldo; 5. Fabio Cannavaro, 13. Alessandro Nesta, 15. Mark Iuliano; 11. Gianluca Pessotto, 4. Demetrio Albertini, 14. Luigi Di Biagio, 18. Stefano Fiore, 3. Paolo Maldini (capt); 20. Francesco Totti, 21. Marco Delvecchio
Referee: Anders Frisk, Sweden
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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