Del Piero Left to Rue Two Bad Misses
Copyright � 2000 Nando Media
Copyright � 2000 Agence France-Presse
ROTTERDAM (July 2, 2000 7:45 p.m. EDT http://www.sportserver.com) - 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.
