the last minute of a French team

Rarely has there been such an immediate sanction. The time of three Italian passes in the French half, "olé, olé" escape from the turn azzurro from De Kuip stadium in Rotterdam. Zinedine Zidane has just soaped what is, necessarily, the last French opportunity of the match, after two minutes out of four stoppages of play; a well-placed free kick which he sends to the ball pickers. French pressing is tired. "When I come back, I see everyone a little bit dejected, except Didier Deschamps who believes in him", will tell Robert Pirès, one of the "Infantrymen" launched at the end of the match by Roger Lemerre, who is organizing a 3-4-3 Playstation.

In the third "olé", Gianluca Pessotto returns the ball to the French with an absurd ladle towards Francesco Totti, offside. The Italian substitutes are already sucked up by the playing area and refrain from invading it, standing virile by the shoulders. Charles Biétry, to comments: "Two 45 minutes of stoppage time. I don't even know if there will be another shot to play … In any case, we have to act as if there will be one. "

Fabien Barthez sends a long balloon as it still does at the time. David Trezeguet wins his aerial duel, Fabio Cannavaro releases on the chest of Sylvain Wiltord who lets bounce once, twice the ball before equalizing with a crossed strike, under the soft glove of Francesco Toldo. The Florentine, whose competition for a lifetime, takes the lead with both hands before the ball even hits the net.

A strange selection

"I understood before everyone else, Toldo tells World, in 2016. Guardians have a sixth sense. " The rest, he also knows it, like all Italians. In the game that soon disappeared from the golden goal, which already smiled at the French in 1998 (against Paraguay) and in the semi-final of this Euro (against Portugal), Italy will lose. “They kept the ball and made us run. We, on the contrary, had a game that made us spend too much energy. We stuck out our tongues. After Wiltord’s goal, I knew it was the end. "

La Nazionale recovered one day less, after their semi-final won on penalties against the host country. The unexpected victory against the Netherlands in view of the match and the expulsion of Gianluca Zambrotta made him draw on his already limited resources.

A strange selection than that of the taciturn Dino Zoff. His certainties are rare (Alessandro Nesta in defense, Francesco Totti in attack), his game plan indecipherable, if it is not that of thwarting the opponent. But his esprit de corps led the team to Rotterdam. In the final, it manifests itself by the partitioning of a Zizou at the top of his game but whose arabesques, that evening, do not serve the game.

The game, precisely, argued for a French victory over the whole competition. But, in the final, Italy understood everything. Alessandro Del Piero, who entered late in the game, has two chances to complete the blue beast. He will be the most affected the next day before the Italian press: "I am destroyed, it is the truth. There is only bitterness in me, the bitterness of missing the opportunity to take us to 2-0. It's all my fault, I know it. Against France we deserved to win, there is no doubt. We lost in an incredible way. "

"We knew we had already lost the match with the equalizer"

This reality clashes with the convictions of the French, who have for them the coronation of 1998, the talent of Zidane and the faith of Deschamps. "Quite frankly, if we had been afraid, if we had trembled, we would never have won, said Youri Djorkaeff, fifteen years later, France Football. To do what we did, we had to have real self-confidence, collective confidence, individual confidence too, and then that mental strength that we had acquired in 1998. "

When Wiltord equalized, fifty-six seconds before the end of the game, the certainties of the Italians joined those of the Blues. Demetrio Albertini, at France Football : "At the time, it’s like we’ve had our legs cut off. We had lost all our energy. After the goal, we remain a little cautious. We don't talk much. We try to encourage each other, to tell ourselves that we are going to react. But the truth is, we knew we had already lost the match with the equalizer. " Thierry Henry, boater, motioned to the Italian bench to sit down.

De Kuip, at this moment, knows that the game has changed and is only waiting for the golden goal of the Blues. It will be clinical and due to the two other substitutes: Robert Pirès who tumbles to the left, center between Nesta's legs, and David Trezeguet, half-pivot in the pivot in Toldo's skylight. Deschamps will raise the 15th^e and last trophy of his playing career. The French improvise a lunch on the grass in Toldo's penalty area. It’s the end of an era; they savor it.

Another more tumultuous painting in the center of the lawn. Roger Lemerre tries to convince Didier Deschamps to give up on his international retirement. The following days, lip reading specialists will decipher the words of the two men, giving birth to the new favorite technical gesture of footballers: the hand in front of the mouth.

On both sides of the Alps, acrimony

The Deschamps of Euro 2000 is not the best on the field, or in front of the press, which it boycots after a paper deemed derogatory in The team. Resentment spoils the party, until the night after the title. Roger Lemerre, too, looks sad. He will lose " (his) general », as the former member of the Joinville battalion calls Blanc and Deschamps.

From the coach, the special envoy of World, Elie Barth, wrote the following day: "This fifty-nine year old man, astonished with restrained passion, does not have to force himself to appear so detached. “The victory belongs to the players. Everyone expresses their emotions in their own way, it respects itself, "he said in a white voice. "

On both sides of the Alps, this strange finale dissipates in acrimony. Silvio Berlusconi, Italian opposition leader and owner of AC Milan, wrestles with Dino Zoff's strategy who, out of pride, resigns. A bad political blow for the Cavaliere, denounced by his peers and the world of football, including the coach of his own club, Alberto Zaccheroni.

In fact, the Nazionale has sown more in the Benelux than a soon dislocated French team. "After this bitter disillusionment, Italy may be getting rid of the image that sticks to its skin, that of a cynical team, wrote the columnist of La Repubblica Gianni Mura. Italians can lift their heads, they have shown their worth, and not only in the art of exercising catenaccio. It was useless, but it can be used later. "