The French Connection

A mad football fan like me couldn’t help but notice another hidden statistics like the Italians march into the final every year since 1970 and victory under similar circumstances in 1982. Italians think they will be lucky as they were then. True, French were rather lackluster in their win against Portugal and Italians with a bunch of indefatigable and excellent players start as favorites.

But as a fan of Henry, Zidane and Ribery, why i think France would win this World Cup? Last major tournament win for France was Euro 2000. Yes, Italians were the finalists and were the favorites. They had led till the 2nd half injury time before Wiltord sneaked in a goal, in what was virtually the last kick of the normal period and Trezeguet smashed the winner into the left hand corner of the net in extra time. Guess whom did France beat in the semis? The Golden generation of Portugal and the winner of course was scored in a penalty kick by you-know-who, Zidane again. Italians had beaten the hosts, Dutch in the semis and made it to the finals. Doesn’t it sound similar here? So history is on the French side as well, though on paper and form Italy has better chances to lift the cup.

Hope the better team wins and mark an end to what has been an eventful WC finals.