Hosts: Germany
Winners: Italy
Competing teams: 32
Where were England? Even more quarter-final heartbreak
With their mission to make football a global success, FIFA’s hierarchy had planned to take the 2006 finals to Africa for the first time.
But fears over organisation, the building of stadia and finally the decision of New Zealand’s FIFA representative Charlie Dempsey to abstain in the crucial vote meant Germany pipped South Africa in the final count.
And what an inspired decision it was to be as Germany welcomed the football world with open arms and staged a memorable tournament. And the football wasn’t bad either.
The hosts, managed by Jurgen Klinsmann, got the show on the road with a 4-2 win over Costa Rica in the opening match and went on to win their next two group games playing some fine football in the process.
Spain, Portugal and Brazil also emerged from their groups with maximum points while, after their disaster of 2002, France got out of the group stages but only thanks to an unconvincing 2-0 win over Togo in their final match.
England finished top of a group containing Sweden, Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago but, despite two wins, failed to convince many that they would be a threat in the later stages.
Argentina produced the most spectacular performance in the first phase with a magnificent 6-0 thumping of Serbia in the 2006 Group of Death. Jose Pekerman’s side, who promised so much, topped the group alongside Holland with debutants the Ivory Coast finishing an unlucky third.
Australia, playing in their first tournament since 1974, also made it out of the group stage and starred in the tournament’s most bizarre game when English referee Graham Poll managed to book Croatia’s Josep Simunic three times before finally sending him off.
Eventual champions Italy needed victory in their final group game against the Czech Republic to progress and were even less convincing in the first knockout stage when they had to rely on a late, and hugely controversial penalty, to beat Australia.
England were once again unconvincing as they beat Ecuador to make it to a second successive quarter-final but highly fancied Holland were sent packing by Portugal, while Spain yet again failed to live up to their potential as they lost 3-1 to France in Hannover.
Two Lukas Podolski goals saw Germany get past Sweden and World Cup excitement reached fever pitch in the host nation when Der Mannschaft went on to beat favourites Argentina on penalties in the last eight.
Wayne Rooney was sent off in England’s quarter-final against Portugal as Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side once again failed to progress beyond the last eight. After a goalless 120 minutes, the game was settled by penalties with Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher all missing.
Italy seemed to be timing their run just right as they impressed in a 3-0 victory over Ukraine, Luca Toni netting twice, while Thierry Henry’s goal gave France a shock 1-0 win over Brazil.
The French were also 1-0 winners in their semi-final against Portugal, this time Zinedene Zidane was the hero as he converted from the penalty spot.
In Dortmund, Germany and Italy played out a goalless 90 minutes in their semi-final clash. However, far from settling for the lottery of a shootout, Marcello Lippi’s side threw caution to the wind in extra time and were richly rewarded as goals from Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero sealed their place in the final.
That final will forever be overshadowed by Zidane’s moment of madness in extra time when he incredibly headbutted Italian defender Marco Materazzi and was sent off.
Those two players had been central figures in the opening 20 minutes of the game as first Zidane opened the scoring with another penalty before Materazzi equalised.
The game drifted into penalties and, in a close shootout, only France striker David Trezeguet failed to score handing Italy their fourth world title.
Did you know? With World Cup holders no longer automatically qualifying for the next finals, FIFA decided that from 2006 onwards the tournament hosts would play in the opening game.
