July 02, 2006	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 5, 1427

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HAMBURG, July 1: Italy's scorer Gianluca Zambrotta paid tribute to an “extraordinary performance” which has taken them to a World Cup semi-final showdown with Germany in Munich on Tuesday after brushing aside Ukraine 3-0.

Zambrotta scored Italy's first and provided the cross for the third goal as well as blocking a Maxim Kalinichenko drive on the line when the score was 1-0.

“We're very satisfied to reach the next round. It was a tricky match but we put in an extraordinary performance,” said Zambrotta.

“Now we're expecting a very difficult match from Germany in the semis.”

Luca Toni scored twice in the second half to make sure of Italy's progression towards a rematch of their 1982 World Cup final win against a German side.

“I'm really happy and really proud of what the players did today, I'm especially happy for Toni,” said Italy coach, Marcello Lippi.

“It was really strange that he did not score before tonight (in these finals). Now we have to look towards the next match.”

Turning to the semi-final with Germany, who earlier beat Argentina on penalties after their match finished 1-1 in Berlin, he said: “Naturally it will be difficult but it will be difficult for Germany too.”

There were no excuses from Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin despite seeing his side go close on several occasions after the break when the score was still 1-0.

“There's no such thing as good or bad luck here. The Italians have a great team and they don't forgive mistakes,” he said. “On the whole our team deserves great praise.”—Reuters