EURO 2000: Del Piero left to rue two bad misses

July 2nd, 2000
SportsServer

By Gideon Long

ROTTERDAM - Alessandro Del Piero was left to rue two terrible misses which would have sealed an Italian victory over France in the European Championship final on 
Sunday.

The first fell to him in the 59th minute, three minutes after Marco Delvecchio had given Italy a 1-0 lead.

The little Juventus striker latched onto a through ball from Francesco Totti but fired his left foot shot across goal and well wide of Fabien Barthez' right hand post.

With six minutes to play and Italy still winning 1-0, Del Piero was put clear by Massimo Ambrosini -- again on the right hand side of the penalty area some 15 meters from goal.

But he hit a feeble right foot shot straight at Barthez, who saved with his feet.

Italy then conceded an equalizer in the fourth minute of injury time and lost the match to David Trezeguet's 103rd minute "golden goal."

"I'm destroyed," Del Piero said afterwards. "Destroyed because incredibly, we've lost, and destroyed because I had chances to score and I didn't manage to take them."

"Both misses were as bad as the other. I wouldn't have minded hitting the second one badly if I'd have taken the first well one."

Del Piero said Italy's defeat had yet to sink in.

"My bitterness is too great," he said. "Seeing that great opportunity go up in smoke just 30 seconds from the end is just too hard."

"We played well in general," he told reporters. But all the things you'll write in the newspapers tomorrow -- like 'no one expected Italy to get this far' or 'Italy played well' -- they're all things that are secondary to the defeat. It's too great at the moment."

Del Piero's misses marked a sorry end to a tournament in which he has shown occasional flashes of his brilliant best but, once again, underperformed.

He scored a fine winner in Italy's 2-1 first round defeat of Sweden but made little impact when he came on as a late substitute against Turkey, Belgium and Romania and was obliterated by the Dutch centrebacks in the semifinal.

Del Piero's shortcomings against the French marked the end of his second consecutive disappointing tournamant.

He was one of the flops of the 1998 World Cup despite a brilliant 1997-98 season with Juventus.
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