The World Cup is over for another four years, and Italy, not Germany, which hosted the tournament, or a resurgent France, was named the winner. Here is a short summary of the semi-final, the play-off for third and fourth place, and the final, which completes BetBonus.co.uk's coverage of the world's best tournament.
Semi Finals
The game between Germany and Italy might have been the best of the whole tournament. Both teams usually play defence, but this year they have shown they can attack like never before. At the end of 90 minutes, there was no goal, which shows that the cautious bookmakers who bet on a draw at odds of 2/1 were right. However, there were other things that happened during the game. The shot by Alberto Gilardino went off the post, and Gianluca Zambrotta's shot hit the bar. Lukas Podolski led the German attack, but his header from David Odonkor's cross went wide, and Gianluigi Buffon made a great save with one hand.
The game was going to go to penalties until the last two minutes, when the hosts were shocked by two goals. Impressive left back Fabio Gross hit a first-time shot that Jens Lehmann couldn't stop. A minute later, substitute Alessandro Del Piero took a pass and hit a hard shot into the top corner, beating Lehmann, to send Italy to the final.
The odds were 5/4 that France would make it to the final, and they did so with ease after beating Portugal 1-0. Ricardo Carvalho tripped up Thierry Henry inside the box after 33 minutes, which led to a penalty that Zinedine Zidane scored.
Playoff for Third and Fourth Place
Germany came in third place at the end of the tournament. They beat Portugal 3-1, which made them one of the safest bets at odds of 3/4. After a scoreless first half, Bastian Schweinsteiger scored after 55 minutes with a shot from a long distance, and Armando Petit put in another Schweinsteiger shot from a long distance, this time a low free kick, with a deflection. The Bayern Munich midfielder scored another long-range goal 13 minutes from the end to give the home team the win. However, Oliver Kahn, who was getting his 86th and final Germany cap, missed out on a clean sheet because Nuno Gomes scored a consolation goal with two minutes left.
Final
Italy won the World Cup after a perfect penalty shootout, but Zinedine Zidane getting sent off in his last game for France will be what people remember most about the game. Zidane put France ahead after seven minutes with a penalty kick. He joined Geoff Hurst of England, Vava, and both Pele and Pele of Brazil as the only other players to score three goals in a World Cup final. His goal also broke Italy's streak of four clean sheets, which was one short of the World Cup record set by Italy in 1990. France had a hard time dealing with Italy's set pieces. After 19 minutes, Andrea Pirlo's corner was headed in by Marco Materazzi to tie the game.
With the game tied 1-1 after 90 minutes and odds of 9/5 for a draw, it's funny that the two goal scorers are in trouble as the game heads to a penalty shootout. Zidane was sent off after 109 minutes for head-butting Materazzi. Materazzi, who used to play for Everton, seemed to have said something to upset the veteran Frenchman.
No more goals were scored, and the next five weeks of play were decided by penalties. However, it was the Italians who beat the demons of 1994 and won. Andrea Pirlo scored a goal for Italy, and Sylvain Wiltord tied it up for France. Marco Materazzi scored, but David Trezeguet, who came on as a substitute, hit the crossbar with his shot. Italy was up 3-1 thanks to Daniele De Rossi, but Eric Abidal scored to make it 3-2. Alesanndro Del Piero scored and so did Willy Sagnol. With the score 4-3 in Italy's favour, Fabio Grosso's penalty kick could win the Cup. He did as he was told, and Italy won the game and the World Cup on penalties, 5-3.
