FRANCE EDGE POTUGAL, ITALY WIN CLASSIC
So...the semi finals of the World Cup and once again I'm having to look at it from a neutral perspective. Ah, well there's still some decent memories from this stage of the competition. Roberto Baggio's Italy beating Histro Stoichkov's Bulgaria in '94. A quality match between Brazil and Holland that wound up decided on pens in '98. Slaven Bilic's moronic bit of acting in the same year. And Germany vs South Korea in '02? That match happening in the semis was a highlight in itself!
And after beating the Koreans 1-0 in '02 with Michael Ballack hitting the winner, the Germans are back in the semis again and they're up against Italy, back in the last four for the first time since the '94 match. The Germans were certainly going to have the more fans in Dortmund but Italy have had the smoother run in and the better World Cup history against German oppisition.
Well once the game settled down, so had the Italians, setting up camp in the German goal and having the majority of the attacks. Not that Germany minded too much, both sides matching each other in a highly skilled game and even the Germans were able to have goes at the Italian goal. By have time the match was already fitting the oxymoron 'classic 0-0'.
In the second half it was more of the same but the Italians just couldn't find the net and Jurgen Klinsmann was having heart attacks as his players spurned chances that he'd have stuffed in the net back in the 90s. The Italians biggest problem was getting past Jens Lehmann though, the Arsenal goalie in no mood to let his side down.
So, it was extra time and an Italian shot squeaking past the post early on pretty much summed up the Azzuri's night so far. Marcello Lippi's crew knew full well that defeat to the Germans was inevitable when it came down to penalties and threw everything they could at the German goal, the midfield of both sides getting increasingly knackered.
Sooner or later though, Lehman was going to crack under the constant Italian pressure and in the 119th minute Andrea Pirlo sent in a corner that was headed in by Palermo right back Fabio Grosso, the latest nobody to be given immortality through the World Cup. The Italians weren't finished yet though and in injury time Pirlo's teammate at AC Milan, Alberto Gilardino set up Alessandro Del Piero and the veteran assasin sent the ball to the top corner. I'm more than happy to make room in my World Cup memories for this match.
The next day France matched up against Portugal in Munich. That '98 sdemi final against Croatia was the last World Cup semi final Les Bleus played in, and they beat Croatia 2-1 that night with some veterans from that game still around. The only World Cup semi final Portugal ever played in was when Eusebio and crew got beaten 2-1 by the England side of '66. By my reckoning the '06 side would get caned by their predecessors, this looked like an easy win for Zidane and crew.
Well France were the side that certainly ran the show early on with Portugal's main threat being Cristiano Ronaldo, the United man soaking up boos but still proving Portugal's greatest attacking threat. Portugal actually had the edge for a few minutes then in the 33rd Thierry Henry got himself hacked in the area and Zidane blasted the penalty in, the French retaining the lead till half time.
France then hit the second half running but Portugal were still back in themixer though neither side really looked like hitting the net and the Portuguese resorted to a load of dodgy looking dives complete with Scolari going mental. The ref wasn't interested though. Of greater credit to Big Phil's crew was their going all out for an equaliser in the last few mins, but their efforts came to nothing.