ITALY 1       FRANCE  1         aet
Materazzi 19     Zidane (pen) 7

Italy win 5-3 on penalties

Italy won the World Cup 2006 by beating France on penalties in Berlin, Germany on 9 July 2006 after Zinedine Zidane was sent off in extra time for head butting the chest of Marco Materazzi. Previously Italy had beaten Australia with a last minute goal in the second round before beating Ukraine 3-0 in the quarter finals and Germany 2-0 in the semi finals. Click here to see the World Cup screen chart for all the World Cup 2006 results.

Italy's team was: Buffon, Zambrotta, Cannavaro, Materazzi, Grosso, Perrotta (Iaquinta 60), Camoranesi (Del Piero 86),  Gattuso, Pirlo, Totti (De Rossi 60), Toni

The French team was Barthez, Sagnol, Thuram, Gallas, Abidal, Makelele, Malouda, Ribery (Trezeguet 100), Viera (Diarra 56), Zidane (sent off 110), Henry (Wiltord 107)

France were 1-0 up after only seven minutes after Materazzi clipped the foot of Florent Malouda and a penalty was given. Zidane chipped the penalty off the top of the crossbar and just over the goal line.

Italy then came back into the match and looked dangerous with every deadball situation in the first half. The equaliser came after Materazzi outjumped Patrick Viera to head in a corner from Andrea Pirlo. Materazzi could have headed in another goal from a corner soon afterwards and Luca Toni hit the bar for Italy in the first half too.

France started the second half the stronger and could have had another penalty after 53 minutes when Gianluca Zambrotta appeared to bring Malouda down in the penalty area. Thierry Henry made some good runs into the box too to force some last man defending from the Italian defence. It should also be noted that the defensive midfielder Gennaro Gattuso had an exceptional game for Italy.

With half an hour of the game left and against the run of play Luca Toni headed in a free kick from Pirlo but the offside flag went up and so the goal did not count. Both sides had chances in the last half hour but the game went into extra time.

France also had the better of extra time until Zidane was sent off after 110 minutes - after an exchange of words with Materazzi, Zidane suddenly turned and head butted the tall Italian defender in the chest - the Argentinian referee Elizondo did not see the incident and it looked like Zidane had got away with this indiscretion until Elizondo spoke to the fourth official - the red card followed which brought a sad end to Zidane's career (as he said that this would be his last professional football match).

The final went to penalties for only the second time in World Cup history, the last time being in 1994 when Italy lost to Brazil. This time Italy were to triumph by scoring all five of their penalties whilst substitute David Trezeguet missed his for France.

In the penalty shootout Pirlo scored for Italy, the Wiltord scored, Materazzi scored, Trezeguet missed, Rossi scored, Abidal scored, Del Piero scored, Sagnol scored and Grosso scored to give Italy a 5-3 victory on penalties.

Zidane was awarded the golden ball award the next day for being the best player in the competition (although many of the votes had been cast before he was sent off).

Italy have been in the final every twelve years since 1970 and they won this time with the a great defensive record having only let in two goals in the whole competition. Italy also had most players in the FIFA World Cup squad (chosen before the final).