It is a fitting tribute to a World Cup where defences have ruled that Sunday’s final between France and Italy will see the two stingiest teams in the tournament go head-to-head.
BERLIN: It is a fitting tribute to a World Cup where defences have ruled that Sunday’s final between France and Italy will see the two stingiest teams in the tournament go head-to-head.
With just three goals conceded between the finalists in their 12 games so far, it is not difficult to envisage a tense climactic battle that ay need something special to unlock it.
And in the form of their mesmerising captain Zinedine Zidane, France believe they hold the skeleton key. “We have Zidane and they don’t," was French defender Willy Sagnol's neat appraisal of the two finalists.
At the age of 34, Zidane will bid ‘au revoir’ from football on the biggest stage of all, bringing the curtain down on a glittering career that has seen him win every major honour the sport has to offer.
Now a global audience of 1.5 billion will focus their gaze on Berlin's 69,000-capacity Olympic stadium to see if the French magician can pull off one last, glorious conjuring trick.
Win or lose, Zidane's place in the pantheon is assured, his role in helping France to the final after coming out of international retirement adding lustre to the legend.
Written off earlier as they stumbled through the group phase, France's fortunes underwent a renaissance once the knockout rounds began with Zidane inspiring the revival.
Now they are only 90 minutes away from a second World Cup in eight years, the crowning achievement in a decade of glory that began when France, and Zidane, reached the semi-finals of the 1996 European Championship.
The common thread of the past 10 years has been Zidane, along with his friend and defensive stalwart Lilian Thuram, who will win his 121st cap before his expected retirement.
“It's going to be very difficult and we are going to have be at the top of our game, but we have the weapons to do it," said Zidane, scorer of two goals against Brazil in the final
in Paris eight years ago.
No one associated with the final appreciates the threat of Zidane better than Domenech's Italian counterpart, the masterful Marcello Lippi.
Lippi was Zidane's manager for three years at Juventus when the French maestro was at the peak of his powers.
“France have recovered the best Zidane and have grown through the tournament," Lippi said. “Zidane is probably the best player there has been in the past 20 years."
Despite the high praise, if anyone can come up with a plan to thwart Zidane, it is the shrewd 58-year-old who has overseen Italy's stealthy progress into their sixth World Cup
final.
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