Italy edged Brazil 2-1 to reach the decider, with Giuseppe Meazza scoring the winner from the spot. His nerve was not the only thing ‘Il Balilla’ (The Little Boy) had to hold. As Meazza prepared to take the penalty, the elastic in his shorts, which had been ripped earlier in the game, snapped. The Inter Milan man duly held them up with one hand as he stroked the ball past penalty-saving specialist Walter.
Garrincha should have been public enemy number one in Santiago. The ungovernable winger had tormented adversaries throughout with his hypnotising, comic-book tricks, scored twice, set up another and been sent off as Brazil beat the hosts 4-2. Yet the Chileans went home loving rather than loathing ‘The Joy of the People’. When they discovered his red card would leave him suspended for the final, a public outcry was unleashed. No less than Chile president Jorge Alessandri consequently led a petition to allow Garrincha to perform in the final. It was ultimately successful – a verdict Czechoslovakia would live to regret.
Toni Schumacher charged from his goal and maniacally clattered into Patrick Battiston. The France No3, who had only been on the field for minutes, broke two teeth, cracked three ribs and damaged a vertebra, yet the West Germany No1 went unpunished. To heighten French fury, Schumacher, showing disregard for his stricken opponent, acted impatiently as Battiston was treated for several minutes before being stretchered off. Schumacher then went on to save penalties from Didier Six and Maxime Bossis in the shootout as West Germany reached the Bernabeu final.
The nation that bore ‘Beatlemania’ was gripped with ‘Gazzamania’. Paul Gascoigne had been electrifying, inspiring the Three Lions into the semi-finals for the first time in 24 years. When he was shown the yellow card in the 98th minute against West Germany, realising he would miss the final if England got through, ‘Gazza’ burst into tears. He recalled: “When I was a young kid playing at my youth club, every night I used to dream about playing football at the World Cup. I lived that dream in Italy. When I was shown the yellow card, I knew it had come to an end.”
“My heart hit my shoes,” added England manager Bobby Robson. “Because I realised instantly that was the final for Paul Gascoigne, out. And that’s a tragedy – for him, me, the team, the country, the whole of football. Because he was so good, and he was superb in that particular match.” The incident nevertheless skyrocketed Gascoigne’s popularity. “Before Paul Gascoigne, did anyone ever become a national hero and a dead-cert millionaire by crying?” wrote The Independent. “Fabulous. Weep and the world weeps with you.”
Lilian Thuram scored in just one of his 142 appearances for France – and amazingly, the man who was in the midst of netting just one goal in 11 seasons in all competitions at club level, got two in it! The right-back certainly picked a perfect moment to masquerade as a marksman. Thuram scored once with his right foot and once with his left to grab Les Bleus a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Croatia.
“My mother was in the stands,” said Thuram. “They told her that her son had scored the first goal – she couldn’t understand it. When they told her I’d scored again, she fainted. I’m not joking.” Funnily, when France battled Paraguay in the Round of 16, bookmakers offered odds of 40/1 on Thuram to score at any time – over six-and-a-half times higher than opposition goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert (6/1)!
“Everyone was going on and on about my leg injury, questioning whether I could play in the semi-final,” Ronaldo recalled of the days after he limped out of a quarter-final victory over England. “I was sick and tired of hearing about it. So I cut my hair like that, asked my team-mates what they thought, and they said, ‘It’s horrible! You can’t keep it like that.’
“I thought, ‘This could work’. Sure enough, the journalists forgot about my injury immediately. All they could ask about was my hair. I could relax.” Unburdened by reserve goalkeeper Dida’s clippers, Ronaldo scored the only goal against Turkey to send Brazil into the final. “It was horrendous!” he admitted later. “I apologise to all the mothers who saw their sons with the same hairstyle.”
Fabio Cannavaro could, size-wise, have probably pursued a career as the next Frankie Dettori. Per Mertesacker, AKA ‘BFG’, wouldn’t have looked out of place beside Dirk Nowitzki on a basketball court. Yet on Westfalenstadion grass, logic was belied. Cannavaro overcame a 22-centimetre height difference to win a header against Mertesacker in stoppage time.
The Neapolitan then careered after his own clearance, bravely heading the ball away from Lukas Podolski to initiate an Italian counter-attack, which ended with Alessandro Del Piero scoring the latest-ever goal in a World Cup match and sealing the Nazionale’s passage to the final.
Sources: FIFA Official
