Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 July 2000 Issue No. 489
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Italy's Toldo buries his face in his hands and Henry (12) is about to celebrate as Wiltord (13), the source of their despair and joy, runs to the sidelines after scoring deep into injury time for France.

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The world had a ball

Two years later and France is celebrating again. In 1998, the French were on top of the world and now they are masters of Europe.

French players said at the start of EURO 2000 that winning the European Championship would be tougher than winning the World Cup. So it proved, with the side scraping through match after match on the way to the final.

In the final against Italy, time was running out, the Italians were celebrating and the French were staring at defeat.

But Sylvain Wiltord collected the ball out left, cut inside and finally found a way around stubborn Italian goalkeeper Francesco Toldo to make it 1-1.

That goal, in the fifth minute of injury time, forced the final into extra time. David Trezeguet's volley was the "golden goal" that meant France became the first team to win the Euro while world champions.

Italy went home 2-1 losers having been so close to being champions. It was that sort of European Championship.

With most teams opting to attack from the start, the 2000 Euros were a great advertisement for soccer -- leaving aside the violence of the English fans and the Portuguese players manhandling of the officials after they lost their semi-final to France.

The championship had some of the most dramatic performances in soccer history. Yugoslavia, 3-0 down and with a player sent off, scored three times in seven minutes for a 3-3 tie with Slovenia. Spain, 3-2 down in the final minute against Yugoslavia and staring at elimination before two goals made it a 4-3 victory.

Portugal, 2-0 down inside 18 minutes of its opening game against England, hit back to win 3-2 and became one of the teams of the tournament before an acrimonious 2-1 loss to France in the semi-final.

The Romanians, on their way out at 2-2 with the English who were all but celebrating a place in the quarter-final, won the game thanks to an 88th minute penalty that put England out.

French captain Didier Deschamps, his head bedecked with over-sized swathes of confetti, holds the Euro trophy aloft

Spain missed a last-minute penalty by star striker Raul Gonzalez and lost the quarter-final 2-1 to France.

The Netherlands missed two penalties in regulation in the semi-final against Italy and three more in the penalty shootout. That meant the co-host failed to make it to the final.

The final itself maintained the thrills and the drama right until Trezeguet's goal, the last kick of the championship.

"Everybody thought we were dead," said Thierry Henry who terrorised the Italians with his speed.

"With the French team, it is never over. I was pretty annoyed the Italians were already thinking of victory. They were clapping hands and high-fiving. It was bothering me, so I was really happy when the ball went in."

"It is the willpower of the team that did it," said French coach Roger Lemerre. "The team wanted this trophy since the day it won the World Cup. We said that, if there was a second left, we had to go all out for it. The miracle happened and we caused it."

Many of the Italians lay on the De Kuip turf disbelieving what had happened. They had been so close to glory and winning the title for the first time since 1968.

"I think a thing like this you won't forget for a lifetime," said defender Alessandro Nesta who had another standout game at the back. "Thirty seconds from the end and it all goes up in air."

"Until 20 seconds from the end we were the champs, now we're no longer so," said Udinese midfielder Stefano Fiore. "Twenty seconds from the end we were in good shape. After the tie, they had more energy."

Italian coach Dino Zoff, who appeared on course to become the first to add the Euro title as a coach as well as a player in 1968, remained proud of his players. "We proved Italian soccer can battle against anyone," said Zoff who has endured months of criticism from the Italian media. "I'm really sorry, but this is soccer," Zoff told reporters.

The championships had their darker side. The early stages were marked by rioting in Brussels and Charleroi with most of the trouble caused by English fans but minor incidents involved Belgians and Turks. The English were so bad that UEFA threatened to kick England out if the violence continued. It didn't and England was eliminated in the first round anyway.

Portugal, with Luis Figo and Rui Costa among the stars of the tournament, delighted the fans with a thrilling, attacking brand of high quality soccer. But they were furious that the French were awarded what turned out to be a match-winning penalty in extra time and turned on Austrian referee Guenter Benko and his colleagues.

Compiled by Abeer Anwar from wire services

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