The Story of Italy in The World Cup Part 4

We continue our story about the Italian national team in the World Cup, and we reach the 2006 World Cup finals hosted by Germany.

World Cup 2006

The 2006 FIFA World Cup is the eighteenth FIFA World Cup tournament. Germany hosted the tournament for the second time in its history after West Germany hosted the 1974 tournament. This tournament was held from June 9 to July 9, 2006, with the participation of 32 teams.

Italy was placed in Group E, along with Ghana, the United States of America, and the Czech Republic.

Italy opened its first-round matches against Ghana on June 12, 2006, at the EWD Arena in Hanover in front of more than 40,000 spectators.

At nine o'clock European time, Brazilian international referee Carlos Simon blew his whistle, announcing the start of the match.

Italy opened the scoring through star Andrea Pirlo, before substitute Vicenzo Iaquinta added the second goal, as Italy won 2-0.

In the second match, Italy faced the United States on June 17, at the Fritz Walter Stadium in Kaiserslautern.

That match ended in a 1-1 draw, as Italy striker Alberto Gilardino scored, while the United States of America tied through an own goal scored by Italian defender Christian Zaccardo.

Italy concluded its first-round matches against the Czech Republic on June 22 at Volkspark in Hamburg.

Italy had to win this match in order to qualify for the second round, and this is what happened, as the Italian team managed to beat the Czech Republic 2-0.

Defender Marco Materazzi scored in the 26th minute, and Filippo Inzaghi added the second goal in the 87th minute.

Thus, Italy qualified for the second round as the group leader.

In the second round, on June 26, 2006, at Fritz Walter Stadium in Kaiserslautern, the Italian national team faced its Australian counterpart, in a match that lasted a 0-0 draw throughout 90 minutes.

In the 90+4 minute, full-back Fabio Grosso slipped into the Australian penalty area and fell demanding a penalty, and Spanish referee Medina Cantalejo blew his whistle, announcing a penalty kick for Italy, amid objections from the Australian team.

Francesco Totti advanced and scored the penalty kick successfully, thus Italy won 1-0 and qualified for the quarterfinals.

Television replays then showed that Grosso fell alone without any obstruction from the Australian defender.

In the quarterfinals, on June 30, 2006, at the Volkspark Stadium in Hamburg, the Italian team faced its Ukrainian counterpart, in front of more than 50 thousand spectators who filled the stands of the match stadium.

At nine o'clock European time, Belgian international referee Frank de Bleecker blew his whistle, announcing the start of the match.

And since the 6th minute, defender Gianluca Zambrotta (Barcelona player at the time) opened the scoring for Italy, before Luca Toni (Fiorentina player at the time) added the second goal in the 59th minute, and Luca Toni himself scored the third goal in the 69th minute, thus Italy won 3-0 and qualified for the semi-finals.