FIFA World Cup 2006: Italy vs France – tactical analysis

The FIFA World Cup 2006 final in Berlin was one of most dramatic finals in World Cup history. The tournament itself was the last time we saw many of the greats like Raul, Figo, Beckham, Totti, Del Piero, Ronaldo and Zidane play the game at an international stage. It also set the launch for the new batch of talents like Fernando Torres, David Villa, Lionel Messi and Frank Ribery.

The defending champions from Korea-Japan 2002, Brazil came in with their golden generation as one of the favourites to win again but were eliminated by France in the quarter-finals. Italy, who struggled through the group stages, saw off strong contenders to the title and host of the tournament, Germany, in Dortmund to face France at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.

Both teams scored early in the first half and held each other at 1-1 going into extra-time and the winner ended up being decided in a penalty shootout that Italy won. However, it was the infamous head-butt incident between the goal scorers that the Berlin final is remembered for even today.

The iconic head-butt memory quite possibly overshadowed the tactical battle that took place for 120 minutes in Berlin. A beautiful article by Michael Cox for The Blizzard parallels Marcelo Lippi’s tactics with Italy to a game of chess. In this tactical analysis, we shall analyse the tactics played by both teams to counter each other, and how this tactical tale of the FIFA World Cup 2006 final was quite the chess game after all!

Lineups

Italy: Gianluigi Buffon, Marco Materazzi, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta, Fabio Grosso, Francesco Totti, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Simone Perrotta, Mauro Camoranesi, Luca Toni

Subs: Daniele De Rossi, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Alessandro Del Piero, Angelo Peruzzi, Marco Amelia, Alessandro Nesta, Massimo Oddo, Cristian Zaccardo, Andrea Barzagli, Simone Barone, Filippo Inzaghi, Alberto Gilardino

France: Fabien Barthez, William Gallas, Eric Abidal, Willy Sagnol, Lilian Thuram, Patrick Vieira, Florent Malouda, Zinedine Zidane, Claude Makelele, Thierry Henry, Franck Ribéry

Subs: Alou Diarra, Sylvain Wiltord, David Trezeguet, Mickaël Landreau, Gregory Coupet, Mikael Silvestre, Jean Alain Boumsong, Gael Givet, Pascal Chimbonda, Vikash Dhorasoo, Sidney Govou

“To this day I am not convinced I took the technically best players to Germany,” Lippi told Glenn Moore of The Independent in 2008. “But I was firmly convinced I called the ones that could create a team.” In his autobiography, I Think Therefore I Play, Pirlo recollects how Lippi expressed his frustration with the Italian camp in the middle of the tournament after their shocking draw to USA. But Lippi successfully managed to bring the right spirit back into the squad as the 14 goals in the tournament were scored by 12 different players.

France, on the other hand, looked like a squad straight out of the Expendables from Hollywood. They were one of the oldest teams with an average age of a just under 30 and had members from the team that won the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Most of all it was a team led by the same captain who lifted the trophy eight years ago, Zidane. The coach Raymond Domenech convinced 34-year-old Zidane to come out of retirement after a year to lead this side as he felt it lacked leadership despite technical potential.

Domenech used a 4-4-2 with Zidane playing as a second striker behind Henry. They defended with a back four at most times, with two robust central midfielders, Viera and Makelele defending the backline. It was Malouda and Ribery who would provide pace to the attack, and with Zidane in the centre to pull the strings of the formation for Les Blues.

The Azzurri played with a 4-2-3-1 with Pirlo conducting the orchestra from deep and Gattuso defending him in front. Camoranesi and Perrotta would invert inside and their job was to defend and protect the inside corridors more than to create. Toni played as the traditional target-man with Totti behind him. The key to this system was releasing the fullbacks Grosso and Zambrotta who looked to advance at every opportunity down the wings. Both teams arguably boasted the defensively best two sides of the tournament.

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