Tale of Two Stories

The editor of the Italian sports daily Gazetto Dello Sport must have been one of the Italians who partied shortest last night. When his nation won 2-0 against the hosts Germany in the World Cup he must have taken great joy in shouting the Italian for 'hold the front page'. Instead of the call to relegate 4 senior teams including Juventos and AC Milan he was able to celebrate the Italians regular 12 yearly reaching of the final.

While England fans are upset that it has been 40 years since their team won and reached their only final the Italians seem to have established a regular timetable since 1970 they have reach the last two every 12 years. In 1970 they lost to Brazil in Mexico, in 1984 the won in Spain, in 1996 the lost in the USA. And now 12 years on they're back thanks to Fabio Grosso and Alessandro del Piero scoring two goals in the final minute of extra time.

Now as a Livingston fan I saw my team concede a number of late goals last season, but never that late. So I can appreciate how gutted the German supporters were as Alessandro turned away to celebrate his late decisive strike.

But as Terry Venebales said moments before the goals went in it was a classic example of a thrilling 0-0 120 minutes.