Cautious but happy Zoff looks forward

June 29, 2000
Onefootball.com

Italy coach Dino Zoff refused to celebrate after his side had beaten Holland to reach the Euro 2000 final, telling journalists to wait until Sunday, but admitted that Francesco Toldo had been 'fantastic'.

Thousands of Italian fans poured into Rome's city centre to celebrate the semi-final win against Holland and were joined in the festive mood by Luciano Nizzola, the president of the Italian FA, who called the win 'a miracle'.

Manager Dino Zoff, meanwhile, refused to jump up and down in uncontrolled joy. When asked to smile by Italian journalists he retorted in his usual deadpan manner: "Let's wait until the final - but this is a good result for us."

"We had a fantastic spirit and that was to do with the situation on the field," Zoff said.

"We had a very bad start because of the red card and then the first penalty but the team saw they could really finish the match and do the job."

Zoff was full of praise too for his last line of defence Francesco Toldo who kept the Dutch at bay, facing six penalties in all. He said: "The goalkeeper's performance was fantastic. He was given man of the match and this is what he deserved.

"We didn't start well but once we were down to 10 men we were able to play better."

Asked about the Italians' poor record in shootouts, he said: "It was a question of destiny. I'm not oppressive when it comes to penalties. I asked the players to take each one with as much peace of mind as they could."

Looking ahead to Sunday's final with France, Zoff said: "We have a 50-50 chance. They also went into extra time and finished in the very last minute. They have also used up quite a bit of energy."

Francesco Toldo, understandably, was the hero of the hour but the modest Fiorentina keeper told Rai Uno: "It was the whole team that deserved to win - especially in the second half when they worked their socks off."

Gianluca Pessotto, who took one of the penalties, said he had practised them in training. "I put it further into the corner than I usually do and I also hit it to the opposite side from normal - just to make sure I didn't miss," he added.

Asked about Sunday's final, he said: ""France seems a long, long way away at the moment."

Luciano Nizzola, president of the Italian Football Federation, told reporters: "I want to make two mentions in particular. The first is for Francesco Toldo. When a goalkeeper saves four penalties no adjectives are necessary.

"The other mention is for Luigi Di Biagio, who took his penalty calmly, although calmly is perhaps not the right word because I noticed that before he took it he was very pale.

"But he accepted straight away that he would take the first penalty. He took it very well even though it must have re-awakened memories of his miss at the World Cup."

He added: "This is truly field of miracles."

Goalkeeping hero Francesco Toldo said: "Today we defended like lions and the credit goes to everyone. It's really strange how we ended up playing better with ten men, I really can't explain why.

"Holland could have attacked all day and they still wouldn't have scored, it was one of those days. And then out of six penalties they, missed five and that's freakish. After three straight defeats in penalty shoot-outs it was really important for Italy to finally win one even psychologically."

Alessandro Del Piero said: "The referee's decisions really angered us at first, but as the game went on we adapted and in the end Holland - who had a one-man advantage - besides Bergkamp's post and a good chance for Kluivert, didn't really have any clear-cut chances."

Gianluca Zambrotta, who was sent off in the first half, added: "Unfortunately, I'll miss the final now. I think my sending-off was unjust considering that I only committed two fouls in half an hour of play, getting booked for one and sent off for the other. Anyway I apologise to my team-mates for making their job difficult.

And Francesco Totti, who started the game on the bench, commented: "We were a bit lucky, but to play almost 100 minutes with ten men was physically punishing."

When asked if Zoff had given him any explanation for dropping him to the bench for the match, Totti said: "No, Zoff just announced the team this morning and he read out Del Piero's name instead of mine. He didn't give any reasons for this."
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