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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 July 2000 Issue No. 489 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 July 2000 Issue No. 489
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region Focus International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Final facts
- Four European Championship finals have gone to extra-time (1960, 1968, 1976 and 1996). Only one has been decided on penalties -- the 1976 final between West Germany and Czechoslovakia.- No-one has ever scored a hat-trick in a European Championship final. The highest scorers in a European Championship final are all German. Gerd Muller scored twice in the 1972 final, Horst Hrubesch bagged a brace in the 1980 final and Oliver Bierhoff grabbed two in the 1996 final.
- The last penalty miss in a European Championship final was in 1988 when The Netherlands' Hans Van Breukelen saved an Igor Belanov spot-kick against the Soviet Union.
- Anders Frisk was the first Swede to officiate a European Championship final when he officiated the France versus Italy clash.
- Marcel Desailly is the only player in the French squad to have played every minute of every French game at EURO 2000.
- France had 57 shots on goal in their five EURO 2000 finals matches. Twenty-eight were on target and they scored 11 times.
- France have never beaten Italy by more than two clear goals.
- France midfielder Patrick Vieira has committed more fouls at EURO 2000 (17) than any other of the 43 players in the Italy and France squads.
- France's record goalscorer of all time is Michel Platini with 41 goals from 72 games. Just Fontaine is next with an astonishing 27 goals in 20 games. Of the current squad Youri Djorkaeff is the most prolific with 26 goals in 66 appearances.
- France have never lost a match when their back four has consisted of Lilian Thuram, Marcel Desailly, Laurent Blanc and Bixente Lizarazu. Of the 25 games the four have played together they have stopped their opponents from scoring on 17 occasions.
- Third-choice goalkeeper Ulrich Rame is the only member of the France squad not to have played at all at EURO 2000.
- Only Francesco Toldo has appeared in every minute of Italy's five EURO 2000 finals matches.
- Only two survivors of Italy's starting XI against Brazil in the 1994 World Cup final remain in Dino Zoff's EURO 2000 squad -- Paolo Maldini and Demetrio Albertini.
- Italy have not scored more than two goals in a game since they beat Wales 4-0 in June 1999 with goals from Christian Vieri, Filippo Inzaghi, Paolo Maldini and Enrico Chiesa.
- Fabio Cannavaro played every minute of every match in the qualifying campaign and has appeared in every match at EURO 2000.
- In the final Italy wore white kits for the first time at EURO 2000.
