World Cup - Italy 2-0 Germany

Germany have been sent crashing out of the World Cup on their own turf by Italy in arguably the best match of the tournament so far, and fully worthy of a semi final. Both sides gave everything, but Italy left it incredibly late to score two goals in the last two minutes to send them into the final. The match on the whole was very open, and the nature of Germany’s exit is incredibly dramatic and seemingly harsh. It’s hard to pick out any players as having a bad game, pretty much everyone on the pitch played their part to the best of their ability. Full back Fabio Grosso and Allesandro Del Piero were the two scorers for Italy, in what was an incredible battle of two of the best footballing nations in the world.

The first half was engrossing, with both teams storming forward at will, in a half that was far from short of attacking play. The game was balanced on a knife edge, but neither side was able to hit the back of the net, despite glorious clear cut chances for both sides. Italy were narrowly the better side in the opening 45 minutes, but on the whole, the first half was very open and the quality of football was exceptional.

The scene was set with just three minutes of the first half played. Francesco Totti fired a long range free kick towards the Italian goal. The ball dipped but was collected with relative ease by Germany‘s quarter final hero, Jens Lehmann.

With fifteen minutes gone, Germany had a penalty appeal waved away. Michael Ballack touched the ball onto the upper arm of an Italian defender at point blank range, but the referee let the game flow, and turned into an Italian counter which produced their best chance of the half. The ball was passed to Francesco Totti, who broke through the midfield and sent a sublime lofted through ball, which was latched onto by Simone Perrota. Perrota got in behind the German back four, but his touch was just two heavy, and he was unable to fire a convincing shot at the German goal, and Lehmann picked up the pieces. This move summed up the first half, with both sides taking every opportunity to push forward and put pressure the opposition defence.

A few minutes later, Germany had a half chance. Bernd Schneider’s flat cross was sent into the path of the German prodigy Lukas Podolski, but his ambitious volley was fired well over the Italian bar.

Italy had spells of dominance in the first half, the most obvious one being around the half hour mark. With half an hour played, Fabio Grosso was released down the Italian left flank and burst into the penalty area, nut megging Arne Freidrich in the process. He played a ball towards Luca Toni at the far post, but this was blocked by Per Mertesacker.

The best chance of the second half fell to Germany minutes later in the 34th minute. Podolski combined with Miroslav Klose, who then played a ball to the onrushing right winger, Bernd Schneider. He burst forward in plenty of space, and fired in a shot from the edge of the box towards the Italian goal, but it narrowly went over.

Despite the lack of goals in the first half, the match was thrilling, and was worthy of a semi final match. The teams went into the break deadlocked at 0-0.

The second half maintained the very high standards of football shown by both sides, and proved to be just like the first, with both sides pressurising and creating numerous opportunities.

Germany had a great chance just 5 minutes into the half. Top scorer Miroslav Klose came close to adding to his tally. He went on a mazy run into the box, but just held onto the ball for too long, as Gianluigi Buffon smothered his shot.

A minute later Italy had an opportunity. Andrea Pirlo played Fabio Grosso in, but he took a touch too many, and similarly to the opportunity a minute earlier at the other end of the pitch, the goalkeeper was able to rush out and smother the shot. It turned out he was offside, and therefore the goal would not have standed if it had gone in.

There was yet another opportunity on the hour mark, this one falling for Germany. The ball was worked its way forward to Lukas Podolski, who turned superbly and forced a reflex save from Buffon in the Italian goal. The rebound fell to Arne Freidrich, but the right back smashed the ball over the bar.

As the game wore on, extra time seemed to be a foregone conclusion, and despite the excellent standard of football, neither team was able to score a goal within 90 minutes, and the game went into extra time. This is generous to the spectators, who would have been pleased to be able witness another 30 minutes of this epic encounter of two footballing titans.

Within two minutes of extra time, Italy had hit the woodwork twice. The first time, Alberto Gilardino burst into the box, sent Jens Lehmann the wrong way, but stabbed his shot against the post. Minutes later, Gianluca Zambrotta fired a shot against the German bar following a corner.

The only other clear cut chance in the first half of extra time fell to Germany’s young striker, Lukas Podolski right at the end of the half. David Odonkor used his pace well to break down the right wing and send an amazing cross into the Italian box, but Podolski was unable to direct his free header in the direction of goal, as the ball went out for a goal kick.

The match progressed into the second half of extra time, and the fatigued players continued to give everything, and continued playing some great counter attacking football, just like in the rest of the match. Jens Lehmann made save after save to keep the Italians at bay, and with just a few minutes left to play, the match seemed destined to go to the lottery of a penalty shootout, which would have been an incredibly harsh exit for one of the teams.

However, Italy had other ideas, and sent Germany out in what may seem like an even harsher way to exit the competition. With 118 minutes on the clock, Italian full back Fabio Grosso curled in a superb strike from inside the penalty area following a corner. The corner was played into the German box, but was headed out. The ball fell to Andrea Pirlo just outside the penalty area. He seemed to dance his way forward, before finding Grosso who scored with a very sweet strike. The vast majority of the crowd in Dortmund fell silent instantly. They knew that this could be the end.

The end was confirmed a couple of minutes later, as Allesandro Del Piero showed just why he is one of Italy’s top goal scorers of all time with a clinical finish in what turned out to be the last kick of the game. The Italians broke very quickly following a German attack, and were able to exploit space on the Italian left flank. Alberto Gilardino pushed forward in that space before sliding the ball to Del Piero who curled the ball past Jens Lehmann, and into the top corner of the German net. He was mobbed by his team mates, the Italian substitutes and even the Italian coaching staff! This signalled scenes of great joy for the Italians, but immeasurable disappointment for the vast majority of the crowd in Germany.

Overall, this was 120 minutes of sheer footballing class. Italy were arguably worthy winners, but the truth is that this match was relatively even and neither side deserved to lose. Italy now march into the World Cup final where they will play either Portugal or France. Germany are now in the less enviable third place play-off match, where they will play the loser of the other semi final. One thing for certain that can be taken from this match, is that none of the spectators watching will forget about this game of football for a very, very long time.

Italy 2-0 Germany

Grosso 118
Del Piero 120