Who will it be ??

THE FINAL

France Vs. Italy

9th July

# République française :

Key Players : Zinedine Zidane, Theirry Henry, Patrick Viera, Lilian Thurram

Strengths : probably the most experienced team at this world, 5 of the current squad members were also present at the 1998 triumph, Zizou and the french are peaking at the right time after struggling initally through the group stages, are playing displined football making it difficult for the opposition to score or control the game at all for that matter, moreover we are yet to see the best of henry who knows it might be his day !!

Weakness : Havent really looked convincing enough when it comes to scoring goals and now they face what is undoubtedly the best defence in the world, so will have to really sweat it out in order to find the net, with age and experience also come tired legs and Thuram and copany will have keep up with the energy of the italian forwards !!

# Italia :

Key Players :Buffon, Cannavaro, Pirlo, Totti, Gattuso

Strenghts :The good old italian defence is as strong as ever with Cannavaro-Nesta central defence bieng rock solid and Materazzi filling in for injured Nesta once in a while. Midfield is strong with Gattuso , Cameronesi doing the holding job and Pirlo providing the creativity.

Weakness :The forward line is a bit weak so could find it tough to score goals sometimes. Del Piero and Inzaghi have the expirience but are too old to run around for 90 minutes while Toni and Gilardino have the energy but lack the experince and temperament.

# Italians are surely the favourites going into thsi one. They have continued their run of reaching the Final every 12 years (1970, 1982, 1994, 2006), lost twice to Brazil outside Europe (1970, 1994) but won against the germans in spain (1982) , and by the look of things its their turn to win again. They will be depending on the same old strategy of defend-and-counterattack though they surprised a many with their free flowing play in the semi-finals. Cannavaro and Buffon will again be standing there as the wall between the italian goal and the french forwards, while Gattuso and Pirlo will fight out it out in the midfield. Strikers are the only concern for Lippi , though he has made it clear he would start with Toni and Totti and later replace them with Del Piero/ Inzaghi / Guardino. It looks all set for the italians , they havent really got anything to worry about they just need to go out their and perform as they have been for last two matches and they will be lifting the cup.

# The French will be agin be enjoying the status of underdogs and they will not be complaining. Zizou is back with a bang and what a perfect way it will be for him to end his career by the lifting the trophy which made him the star is he is 8 years ago. But the credit for the recent renaissance will also go to the likes of Viera , Makelele , Thuram and the young rising star Ribery. We are yet to see the best of Theirry Henry. Coming back to the final , it will be hard for the french to break the italian deadlock and so they will again have to rely on their midfield to control the pace of the game and suit their needs. They cannot afford to allow the italians any space because they have shown in the last one month that they dont need too many opportunities to score and have some clinical finsiheers in their line up.

It is only the second ever final for france but five of their current starting eleven were also an important part of the 98 winning team.