ITALY are world champions for the fourth time after beating 10-man France 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Berlin's Olympiastadion. Fabio Cannavaro, a player who has belied his diminutive stature with some giant performances this past month, fittingly closed the 2006 World Cup by holding the biggest prize in football aloft. Twelve years after losing to Brazil in the first shoot-out in a World Cup final, Italy made up for that heartbreak as all five men in blue converted their kicks to claim world football's greatest prize for the first time since 1982. For France the pain of defeat was compounded by the sight of Zinedine Zidane, on his last appearance as a professional, leaving the field having been sent off in extra time for butting Marco Materazzi off the ball. It was Italy's first successful shoot-out in a World Cup after previous failures in 1990, 1994 and 1998 and ironically it was a miss from France's David Trezeguet -- whose golden goal had defeated the Azzurri in the final of EURO 2000 -- that opened the door for Fabio Grosso to fire the winning spot-kick past Fabien Barthez and spark celebrations all the way from Bergamo to Bari. If penalties can resemble a lottery, there could have been no more deserving matchwinner than Grosso, such a positive influence for Italy throughout this tournament. He was one of several Italians prominent in a first period where the Italians played the more fluent football, although it was France who took an early lead. Eight years after scoring twice in the World Cup final in Paris, Zidane opened the scoring with a seventh-minute penalty after Materazzi's trip on Florent Malouda. The penalty was nonchalant, a featherweight chip coming down off the underside bar and only just over the line. At a stroke Zidane joined the list of players to have scored in more than one World Cup final -- a list that also includes Pele, Vava and Paul Breitner. By the 19th minute, however, Materazzi had made amends, the big defender heading the equaliser from Andrea Pirlo's corner. Although both sides threatened to score a second -- notably Italy's Luca Toni, who headed against Fabien Barthez's crossbar before the break -- neither managed to add a second. Extra time brought a scare for Italy when Buffon had to tip over Zidane's header but soon afterwards the France captain was making the sad walk to the dressing rooms accompanied down the tunnel by the glare of thousands and thousands of flash bulbs and the tears of the legions of French supporters. Trezeguet's spot kick hit the crossbar, his pain now mirrored that of the famed Italians, Franco Baresi and Roberto Baggio, who had missed in 1994 and handed the World Cup to Brazil in the first, and hitherto only, penalty shoot-out in the final. At the end his Juventus team-mate Mauro Camoranesi went to him and hugged him in sympathy. Trezeguet's miss meant that as Grosso stepped up for the long walk from the half-way line the world was in his hands. A no-nonsense left-foot strike into the right- hand corner of the net underlined the contribution the Palermo defender has made to the Italian cause this past month. After a gap of 24 years they were world champions once more. Fireworks proclaiming a fourth World Cup for Italy exploded into the black skies above the Olympiastadion as the Azzurri party began, leaving France to its own thoughts.
