The Curse is broken.

There were 24 years between 1982 and 2006 in which Italy had not lifted a World or European cup.

24 years of 'Almost', of 'That Ref!' and '#^@#ing Del Piero!'

I believe, like many other Italy supporters, that the curse that was haunting Italian luck at major tournaments has been vanquished! (Alyssa Milano to the rescue ;)

Let's see, 1990 saw Italy lose their World Cup Semi-Final to Argentina thanks to penalty shoot-out. In 1994, Italy lost the World Cup Final against Brazil thanks to a penalty shoot-out. In 1998, Italy lost their World Cup Quarter Final against France thanks to a penalty shoot-out. In 2000, Italy led France in the European Cup Final 1-0. Uefa rule 4 minutes of stoppage time - 1-1 then Trezegol.

In 2002, Italy lost their World Cup 2nd round match thanks to a dubious disallowed goal and Guus Hiddink's South Korea went on to score the golden goal to send Italy home early - the pain!

For Italy to win its 4th World Cup, Cannavaro's men had to perform sublimely to break every single curse. It seemed that penalty shoot-outs, France and Guus Hiddink were the main reasons why Italy had fallen short over the course of 24 years without success.

Let's re-visit Italy's 2006 World Cup journey.

After professionally disposing of Ghana and the Czech Republic in the group stage, Italy encountered Guus Hiddink's Australia. Although it was sad for all Australian-Italians to see Australia exit the World Cup after such a glorious qualification, it seemed that the 2002 Korea-Hiddink blow was equalised. Italy 1 - Hiddink 1

After Italy proved to the World that they really are tactically and technically the best team in the competition with a resounding 3-0 win over Shevchenko's Ukraine in the quarter final, Italy faced their 1990 demons - Germany.

It seems ironic that Germany won Italia 90, and that Italy won Germany 2006 don't you think? Italy dominated Germany in front of a partizan crowd, with the memories of the Tardelli-like Grosso scoring and celebrating his match winning goal.

Finally came France. France defeated Italy in 1998 on penalties, and again in 2000 thanks to David Trezuguet's golden goal in the European Cup Final in Rotterdam.

The Penalty Shoot Out. It seems bad things come in 3's. Italy exited 3 world cups in the 1990's via penalty shoot-outs, with the final knock-out punch coming from France. It seems that for Italy to win and the penalty curse to be broken, Italy had to score all 5 of its penalties. For Italy to win, it had to be the striker who sunk them in 2000, David Trezuguet, to miss for France.

Add to this the 12 year cycle in which Italy have won since 1970. Italy lost the World Cup final to Brazil in 1970. Italy beat West Germany in the World Cup final in 1982. Italy lost to the World Cup final against Brazil in 1994...

It was destiny that Italy would beat nemisis France in the World Cup final of 2006.

Forza Italia, David Ferrini