EURO 2000
BELGIUM & NETHERLANDS
FRANCE 2-1 ITALY
Belgium and the Netherlands played host to a fantastic roller-coaster ride of brilliance, drama and tension that kept fans enraptured right up to the final kick.
In the first phase, Group A heralded a changing of the guard as lumbering and technically-deficient England and Germany sides were eliminated by the nimble, clever Portuguese and Romanians.
Twice England threw away leads to lose 3-2, and their laboured 1-0 win over Germany, a match reminiscent of two aging drunks brawling in a car park, was the tournament's low-point.
Italy started their campaign in fine style, cruising through Group B as Francesco Totti came of age as an international player, while Turkey knocked out the despondent co-hosts Belgium.
Spain did things the hard way, as usual, mounting an astonishing comeback against Yugoslavia. A goal down in the 93rd minute, they needed two to stay in the competition, and got them. Mendieta's spot-kick and Alfonso's smartly taken winner sealed a scarcely believable 4-3 win.
Yugoslavia thought they were out until news of Norway's failure filtered through. The stunned Slavs had earned a reprieve.
Group D was a hard-luck story for the Czech Republic, unluckily beaten by the Netherlands, then by a French side inspired by a Zinedine Zidane at the peak of his powers. The two favourites progressed.
They went through to face the Dutch, fresh from a 6-1 demolition of Yugoslavia in an epic semi-final in which the rampant Patrick Kluivert bagged a hat-trick.
In an epic tie, ten-man Italy repelled an almost constant barrage of Dutch pressure, but had to ride their luck; twice the men in Orange had the chance to score from the spot in normal time. First, Frank De Boer's weak kick was easily saved by the excellent Toldo.
"I remember that the first major incident in the match was a penalty taken by De Boer. I tried to anticipate the direction and I saved it very well. After that I remember a sequence of shots at my goal and a ball that obviously never wanted to go in," Toldo remembers.
"I realised it was going to be our lucky day."
Toldo's theory was put to the test when Kluivert stepped up for the second penalty and sent him the wrong way. The ball rebounded back off the post.
The match, inevitably, went to a penalty shootout. Psychologically battered, the Netherlands scored just two out of five and Italy were in the final.
France's path to the final was not without incident, much of it involving kicks from twelve yards. At 2-1 up against Spain Fabien Barthez needlessly hacked Abelardo for a 90th minute penalty. If Raul had been wearing the white of Real Madrid, the net would surely have bulged. He ballooned the kick over.
UNSTOPPABLE FRANCE
Referee Günter Benkö awarded a hotly-dispute penalty and, after three minutes of vigorous Portuguese protests, Zinedine Zidane nervelessly smashed the ball into the top-left corner of Vitor Baia's net. Unstoppable, and so were France.
To the final in Rotterdam where France, looking to become the first World Champions to then win in Europe, appeared to lose their bottle.
Ten minutes after the break Marco Delvecchio gave Dino Zoff's men the lead, and the French bid for an historic double was petering tamely out. Alex Del Piero squandered two gilt-edged chances, but it seemed as though it would not matter.
Then, with the Italian bench poised for a triumphant pitch invasion, Silvain Wiltord's 94th minute shot bobbled through a sea of legs and into the far corner.
Italy were broken, there would be only one winner. Robert Pires turned Fabio Cannavaro and crossed for David Trezeguet to deliver a stunning knockout punch.
"It started with a great move by Robert Pires on the left. Pires dribbled around Cannavaro and got to the byline, then he put in the cross," Trezeguet remembers of his most famous goal.
"It was a fairly difficult cross, but I was on the penalty spot and I hit the ball as it dropped and it went in.
"It all happened so quickly, you don't have much time to think but it was enormously satisfying for all of us."
Trezeguet's thunderbolt of a volley elevated that French vintage to another level of greatness. The World Cup win on home soil had been no fluke.
Perhaps more significantly Euro 2000 proved that, in Zidane, France had a successor to Pele, Cruyff and Maradona: the world's finest player.
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