World champions Italy qualified for the UEFA EURO 2008 quarter-finals in dramatic fashion on Tuesday as they defeated France 2-0 at the Letzigrund Stadion and Romania lost by the same score to the Netherlands.

Pirlo penalty
Romania had begun the evening second, in Group C, and would have progressed regardless of events in Zurich had they beaten the already-qualified Dutch. But their defeat opened the door to the Azzurri who seized the opportunity in clinical fashion, inflicting another painful defeat on France and condemning the FIFA World Cup finalists to last place in the section. The game’s turning point arrived in the 24th minute when, after fouling Luca Toni, Eric Abidal was sent off and Andrea Pirlo converted the resulting penalty. Daniele De Rossi’s second-half strike added the gloss to a wonderful evening for Italy, dampened only by the yellow cards for Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso which mean they will miss the quarter-final against Spain on 22 June in Vienna.

Ribéry injury
France almost gifted Italy an ideal start when Toni pounced on Abidal’s slip, only to shoot narrowly wide. Having started slowly in each of their first two matches, Les Bleus were keen to seize an early grip and Franck Ribéry twice fired efforts wide before, to the dismay of the France fans, the winger injured his left leg in the tenth minute and carried off. Samir Nasri was sent on, yet France’s focus appeared to waver and Claude Makelele immediately needed to clear a Christian Panucci header off the line.

Red card
Italy looked menacing every time they broke and after Simone Perrotta had narrowly failed to collect Pirlo’s pass, France finally cracked. Abidal fouled Toni as he bore down on goal, prompting the referee to point to the spot and brandish a red card. Pirlo made no mistake, expertly dispatching the ball into the top left-hand corner. The double blow left France reeling and despite defender Jean-Alain Boumsong replacing the unfortunate Nasri, the two-time champions were in disarray. Toni might have scored three in as many minutes before the half-hour, but after skilfully back-heeling Antonio Cassano’s cross fractionally past the post, the FC Bayern München forward twice missed the target with only Grégory Coupet to beat.

Gross free-kick
Thierry Henry had an opportunity to raise French spirits in the 34th minute but after racing on to Jérémy Toulalan’s slick pass, the FC Barcelona forward struck a cross-shot past the post. With the strikers struggling to find their range, Fabio Grosso looked to show them the way just before half-time, curling a brilliant free-kick towards the bottom corner only for his Olympique Lyonnais team-mate Coupet to push it on to the post.

Almighty roar
Despite playing with ten men, France began the second period in the ascendancy, with Karim Benzema volleying over before Henry had two shots comfortably saved by Gianluigi Buffon. News that the Netherlands had opened the scoring against Romania prompted an almighty roar from the Azzurri faithful and the celebrating continued when De Rossi scored on 62 minutes. The AS Roma midfielder’s 30-metre free-kick took a cruel deflection off Henry, wrong-footing Coupet and effectively ending the French challenge. Although Benzema subsequently saw his curling shot brilliantly tipped wide by Buffon in the 74th minute, there was no way back for France, who finished their campaign with just one point after losing back-to-back matches for the first time in 15 years.

There may be little love lost between France and Italy but their two coaches were in agreement over one matter ahead of the eagerly anticipated Group C showdown in Zurich: for both Les Bleus and their transalpine rivals the final has come early at UEFA EURO 2008.

Dramatic evening
"This is the kind of game every player dreams of being involved in," France coach Raymond Domenech enthused, while his Italian counterpart Roberto Donadoni said: "We know what’s at stake and we’re ready to put our hearts and souls into it. For us, this is already a final." Few could have predicted that the two 2006 FIFA World Cup finalists, would be locking horns on Tuesday knowing that even a victory may not prove enough to reach the quarter-finals. With one point each after two matches, Romania could render their efforts fruitless by beating the Netherlands in Berne to hold on to second spot. It promises to be a dramatic evening, although Domenech is urging his men to focus only on events at the Letzigrund Stadion. "We have to forget the other game completely," he stressed. "We still have a tiny chance but it will only happen if we win our game."

‘Find a balance’
Like the world champions, who lost 3-0 to the Dutch in their opening game, France suffered their heaviest defeat in UEFA European Championship history in losing 4-1 against the Netherlands – and Domenech admits improvements are needed. "We’ve been trying to get the Dutch game out our heads for the last three days," the 56-year-old said. "Despite the result, there were positives to take from the performance, notably concerning the number of chances we created. But we need to find a balance. Against Romania we made a lot of effort to defend, whereas against the Netherlands we made a lot of effort to attack. Against Italy we’ll need to do a lot of defending and attacking."

Vieira absent
Domenech will again be without Patrick Vieira due to a thigh injury and, though he remained coy on the subject of team selection, Eric Abidal, Lassana Diarra and Karim Benzema are being tipped to feature after missing out last time. Italy coach Roberto Donadoni was also keeping his cards close to his chest, saying: "I already have a good idea of my lineup, but this time I won’t reveal anything beforehand." The former AC Milan midfielder is not expected to repeat the five changes he made for the 1-1 draw with Romania, although Antonio Cassano may start in place of Alessandro Del Piero, while Massimo Ambrosini and Gennaro Gattuso are pressing for recalls.

Keen rivalry
Ever since David Trezeguet’s extra-time winner in the UEFA EURO 2000 final, France-Italy games have been keenly contested. The Azzurri gained revenge for the Rotterdam defeat by triumphing in Berlin two years ago, yet Domenech’s side reclaimed the upper hand with a victory in Paris in qualifying. Donadoni suggested the rivalry was not a significant factor, however, saying: "It’s just like any other game. It’s an important game, but playing France is no different to playing the Netherlands or Romania. Both sides will be extremely motivated and will try to win. It should be exciting. I can’t wait for the game to start."

France coach Raymond Domenech said defensive errors cost his side dear after their UEFA EURO 2008™ prospects took a severe blow with a 4-1 defeat by the Netherlands in Berne. “We collapsed in one part of the game where we used to be very strong,” said Domenech whose counterpart Marco van Basten praised goalscoring substitutes Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie for their spectacular contributions.

Marco van Basten, Netherlands coach
I don’t think it was easy – we played a very good game against Italy and today we were a little bit lucky, we scored the goal at the right moment and that helped us a lot. We started reasonably well in the first half but got into problems. In the second part of the first half we didn’t play well – we just defended and France put us under pressure with their ball possession. Everyone was going to the ball when we needed more players to go deep. But then when Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben came on, they went wide and that helped us. It gave us more space and possibilities to attack again. These players are quick and technically good, so in the second half we were much more dangerous, even if France were applying more pressure. I have to compliment my defence – there was a lot of pressure but they managed it quite well and in the end we made some good goals with good counterattacks.
It is an all-round team. We can defend quite well and we have an excellent goalkeeper and, one way or the other, we stopped their attackers. We have astute, intelligent players in midfield and excellent players in attack. They are hungry to perform. We did excellently against Italy and four days later to offer an exceptional performance against France indicated clearly they have an excellent team spirit. We have an obligation to play well against Romania, for the players and the supporters. The result may not be too important for us but we have to approach the game in an efficient manner.

Raymond Domenech, France coach
Defence used to be our strong point – we had a solid defence, but finally we collapsed in one part of the game where we used to be very strong. You need a bit of luck and our opponents had luck, although they did the same against Italy so they have many qualities too. To concede the opener from a corner was very frustrating and it meant we had to play differently. We should have been more vigilant and once you are behind, everything becomes more complicated. We had more chances than against Romania as the game was more open – we opened it a bit too much maybe. If you watch the first 20 minutes after the two substitutions [of Robben and Van Persie] we had four or five clear chances and could have scored.
It was a mixture of mistakes on our side and the quality of the Dutch goalkeeper who, as usual, put in a good performance. There is a possibility for both teams [France and Italy] to go through but it all depends on the other match, Romania against the Netherlands. The Dutch have six points and I am convinced they won’t play the same players. It doesn’t depend on us – both teams have to play and hope something happens in the other match. In the circumstances, we have to be very optimistic to imagine the Netherlands will beat Romania.