GER: -.

ITA: -.

On the 8th minute Gianfranco Zola (Italy) missed a penalty kick - Andreas Koepke saved.

GER: KOEPKE 7.5; Strunz (RED, 59), Sammer 4.5, Helmer 5.5 (Bode, 87), Freund 5, Ziege 5; Haessler 4, Eilts 5, Moeller 4; Klinsmann 4, Bobic 4.

ITA: Peruzzi 5; Mussi 6, Maldini 7, Costacurta 7, Carbone 6 (Torricelli, 77); Fuser 6 (Di Livio, 82), Albertini 6.5, Di Mateo 6 (Chiesa, 57 - 5.5), Donadoni 6; Zola 6, Casiraghi 6.

REFEREE: Guy Guttles (Belgium).

AUDIENCE: 53.700, Old Trafford, Manchester.

YELLOW CARDS: Strunz (Germany); Casiraghi (Italy).

RED CARDS: Strunz (Germany); NONE (Italy).

Have you ever been stuck into a heavy traffic, hurrying to your girlfriend? If so, you'll understand the facial expression of Arrigo Sacchi, several minutes from the final whistle. He was helpless and fully depended on the others; and the others are ungrateful so often! Russia seemed to make the impossible, erasing the 0:2 score and leading 3:2 against the Czechs 5 minutes from time; however, the wonderful strike of a young Vladimir Smicer, seconds from the final whistle, brought the Czechs back into the quarterfinals. Italy, the team that gave us many enjoyable moments in EC'96, is out.

Catching Germany in a fabulously weak day, Italy played arguably its best game in the tournament, but failed to score. And there appeared a new national hero for Germany (and the Czech Republic, too) - Andreas Koepke. Being the keeper of the bottom team, as Bonnie Ginzburg is lastly in Israel, Koepke (as well as the Israeli National keeper) constantly registers wonderful performances in the National net; yesterday, in "The Best Keeper's Performance Of EC'96" by now, he was simply impenetratable, flying here and there. He reached his peak, parrying a penalty kick (however awful it was) shot by Gianfranco Zola.

The Germans managed to perform several attacks throughout the game, but the whole story was of the duels between the Italian strikers and Koepke. It all started after 6 minutes, with a wonderful diagonal volley shot of Diego Fuser from 18 meters after a badly performed header of Sammer; Koepke dived well to his right and sent it to a corner. Zola performed a curved corner kick to see Koepke flying back and fisting it away.

The next moment could be a crucial one, and it was, in favor of Germany. Sammer tried to make a pass near the midline, but the ball hit Casiraghi. The forward overran Sammer, rushed into the box, passed Koepke and was hit down by the leg trap of the latter. The referee showed immediately to the penalty spot, abstaining, however, from showing Koepke any card. And here came Zola, a well-known penalty taker in the critical minutes. 2.5 years ago, Parma was nearly humiliated by Maccabee Haifa when the terrible penalty shot of Zola was met by the stretched hands of a flying Rafi Cohen; yesterday, it was Andreas Koepke in his best. Zola rolled the ball to his right, Koepke took the proper direction, dived to parry the weak attempt, and covered the ball after another jump. Still, 0:0.

The attacks of Germans were quite few - a great header of Klinsmann (27) missed the frame, a header of Bobic (36) and a weak shot of Sammer (44) were stopped by Peruzzi; the keeper of Juve also headed away a ball sent to him back by Mussi (19), and slid to the legs of Ziege to deny him (42). But the best opportunities remained those of the Italians. Fuser (22) shot wide a ball which beat Koepke but failed to find the finishing foot of Casiraghi; Donadoni was on the rebound and shot a surprising ball fisted away by Koepke. The same Donadoni (24) shot a strong ball again parried by Koepke, and Fuser bombed the rebound from 25 meters, near the right German post. Donadoni, who was very active and created a lot of opportunities at the left wing, shot a surprising bomb of wonderful quality after 32 minutes, but Koepke registered a save to be shown at soccer schools. The last opportunity was of Casiraghi (39) who enjoyed the wonderful pass of Mussi, passed Eilts, entered the box, but tried to pass Sammer instead of passing the ball to Fuser, and finally lost it to Eilts; a strange egoism to result in nothing.

The 2nd half was still under the constant pressure of Italy, but the team was nervous, and it was well seen. A great shot of Fuser was taken away with a magnificent flight of Koepke to his left (47), and Sammer blocked the shots of Carbone (62) and Chiesa (71). A great shot of Carbone (56) found another dive of Koepke, but the ball finally went near the left post without the keeper being involved. Koepke flew back again to deflect a curved corner kick by Zola (80), and then denied Casiraghi in the box (86), with Eilts' help. Germany was playing for the last 30 minutes in ten men, after a 2nd yellow card shown to Strunz; and still, it wasn't enough for Italy to win. The last hopes were put on Russia, but it failed to do the job for the Italians. Don't get stuck into a traffic jam and don't blame others for driving slowly, do the job yourselves. The responsibility is undoubtedly on Sacchi, but also on the whole team. A lot has to be fixed, while Germany and Czech Republic advance.

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