world cup round-up

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At the last-16 stage of this World Cup, nature more or less took its course. The only relative surprises among the teams that made it through to the quarter-finals were Portugal and Ukraine, while the others there were all, at the outset, at the top of the list of favourites to win the tournament: Germany, Argentina, England, Italy, Brazil and France.

Portugal were there thanks to a Maniche goal in their last-16 game against Holland, which broke records for all the wrong reasons. Early assaults on Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who later hobbled off injured, set the tone for a pitch battle that saw the referee Valentin Ivanov hand out 16 yellow cards and four red. FIFA president Joseph Blatter criticised Ivanov for being overly zealous but later retracted his words: the Russian ref was hardly helped by players on both sides who were clearly out for blood.

Ukraine were there thanks to three penalties to none in the shoot-out against Switzerland after the game had finished in an immensely boring 0-0 draw. Switzerland were out but had conceded not a single goal in their four games, something of an achievement.

The last-16 stage also saw the elimination of the last African team, an impressive Ghana, who missed the influential Essien, suspended for their defeat at the hands of Brazil. Spain, with great hopes this time, fell to a France that seemed to have suddenly woken up after a less than impressive group stage. And Italy made it through thanks to a highly controversial penalty in added time against a surprising Australia.

The quarter-finals, had some mouth-watering games, at least on paper. Host nation Germany, riding a wave of national euphoria, pipped Argentina at the post. The South Americans, who had shown previously that they could produce beautiful attacking football, did not this time, hoping that a 50-minute Ayala goal would be enough. It was not because Klose equalised on 80, taking the game to extra-time and the lottery of penalties, while the young genius Messi sat it out on the bench. Frustration got the better of some players and there were scuffles as the teams left the pitch.

Also guilty of excessive caution were England, but they perhaps had more of an excuse against Portugal: they were down to ten men on the hour after Wayne Rooney had stamped on Ricardo Carvalho under the referee’s nose. The incident was to ignite anger right across England, Cristiano Ronaldo accused of influencing the referee’s decision. On the day, numerical inferiority made England retreat, but Portugal could not find a way through. After 120 minutes, it was all down to penalties once again, a replay of the Euro 2004 quarter-final between the two countries. And once again, Portugal’s Ricardo was the hero, saving three spot kicks, a World Cup record.

In the other two games, Italy dispatched Ukraine 3-0 with a typically efficient display, and Brazil confirmed that in this tournament they were little more than a collection of star players, most out of form (Ronaldinho, for example, was unrecognisable). Their victors, France, proved they were peaking and playing beautiful team football, conducted by the maestro Zinedine Zidane with arguably the best individual performance in the whole World Cup.

And so to the semi-finals. German hearts were broken by Italy, as they had been in the 1982 Final (1-3). The hosts held out until, incredibly, the last minute of extra-time. Just when the whole world was expecting penalties, up popped full-back Grosso in the area to curl a shot past Lehmann, and just to rub dirt into the wound, del Piero got a second in added time.

In the other semi-final, underdogs Portugal did not disgrace themselves against France, going down to a Zinedine Zidane penalty on the half-hour after the normally immaculate Ricardo Carvalho had brought down Thierry Henry in the box. France sat back on their lead and Portugal proved once again that their problem here was scoring: they would get just six goals in seven games, none, unfortunately for them, in this one. They were to lose the play-off for third place 1-3 to Germany, who surpassed all hopes the country had at the beginning of the tournament and look to have a strong team to challenge for the upcoming European Championship. Portugal failed to better Eusébio’s Magriços in 1966, who were also knocked out in the semi-finals, by England, but who claimed third place then by beating Russia.

The final was predictably close. Italy had conceded just one goal in six games, that an own goal, and France had theoretically one of the most exciting attacks in the World Cup; the two cancelled each other out. Italy’s defence was once again practically watertight, and only went down to a penalty, scored by Zidane. Materazzi, who had committed the foul on Malouda for the penalty, made up for it with the equaliser on 20 minutes. And so it remained for the next 100. The low point of the game was a head butt by Zidane … into the chest of Materazzi. In his last game in a French shirt, the captain walked off in disgrace, leaving his team mates possibly psychologically shaken. Whatever the reason, Trezeguet missed his penalty kick in the shoot out while the Italians scored all of theirs. Italy had their fourth World Cup title, the first since 1982. France, as Anne Robinson, the presenter of the TV programme ‘The Weakest Link’ might say, left with nothing.

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Your turn

What was your favourite moment of the World Cup? Write and let us know.

Your texts

Campstefano writes “My favourite moment of the World Cup was when Cannavaro raised the world cup and also when Grosso, in the last minute of the semi-final match, scored the decisive goal of the match.”