July 06, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 9, 1427

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Germany 0 .......... Italy 2

DORTMUND, July 5: Goals in the last two minutes of extra time by Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero spared Italy the agony of another World Cup shootout and sent them to the final with a deserved 2-0 win over Germany on Tuesday (partly reported in Wednesday’s edition).

The match seemed destined for penalties after 119 minutes of high-intensity action in which Italy gradually took charge, hitting the woodwork twice at the start of extra time.

The predominantly German 65,000 crowd were quite happy with that prospect knowing their side had won all four of their previous World Cup shootouts while Italy had lost all three.

However, Italy poured forward and Grosso ended the hosts' dreams with a superb curling shot and Alessandro Del Piero, one of two attacking substitutions by coach Marcello Lippi, finished it off with the killer second.

Italy will now play in the final for the sixth time, seeking their fourth win, against either France or Portugal who were meeting in the second semi-final in Munich late on Wednesday.

“It would have been a great shame if we had not won this match on the pitch. Even if it had gone to penalties we would have deserved to go through,” Lippi said.

“Tonight we played better than the Germans in front of 50,000 of their fans in their own backyard.

“These lads never gave up, they kept on attacking right to the end. Now we want to complete the task on Sunday.”

Italy go into the final having conceded just one goal in six games -- and that an own goal -- and they defended superbly again on Tuesday.

If their preparations had been upset by the news that 13 of the squad could be playing lower division football next season because of the Serie A match-fixing scandal it was not evident on the pitch.

The first half was played at a terrific tempo but generally both defences were able to cope with the threat.

The end-to-end approach continued after the break though neither side were able to muster the necessary precision to force the goalkeepers into serious action and Sebastian Kehl, in for the suspended Torsten Frings, and Italy's Gennaro Gattuso were both dominant in screening their defences.

Gianluigi Buffon did have to move sharply to end a Miroslav Klose run and then block a sharp shot on the turn by Lukas Podolski as the home side tried to turn the screw midway through the second period.

Coach Juergen Klinsmann threw on wide midfielders Bastian Schweinsteiger and David Odonkor but neither man was able to make the difference and the game went into extra-time.

Lippi, no doubt fearing penalties, then made his bold move by replacing midfielder Mauro Camoranesi with striker Vincenzo Iaquinta.

Within two minutes they had rattled the woodwork twice as Alberto Gilardino hit a post and then Gianluca Zambrotta thumped the bar from 20 metres.

Del Piero was thrown into the fray and the last 15 minutes produced chances at both ends.

Podolski, who had headed wide from close in the last action of the first extra period, had a great shot saved well by Buffon while Lehmann was similarly solid to deny the impressive Andrea Pirlo.

Germany had never lost in Dortmund, winning 13 and drawing one of their 14 games there over 71 years, and the record seemed set to continue as excellent Mexican referee Benito Archundia began glancing at his watch.

But then a neat inside pass by Pirlo set up Grosso, whose last-minute surge won the penalty that beat Australia in the second round, and the full back curled a sumptuous shot beyond Lehmann.

Germany threw bodies forward in a desperate attempt to save it but Italy broke, Gilardino kept his nerve to feed Del Piero and the striker showed great technique to send Italy to the final.

Scorers: Italy — Fabio Grosso 119, Alessandro Del Piero 120 + 1.

Halftime: 0-0, Fulltime: 0-0, Attendance: 65,000.

Teams:

GERMANY (4-4-2): 1-Jens Lehmann; 3-Arne Friedrich, 21-Christoph Metzelder, 17-Per Mertesacker, 16-Philipp Lahm; 19-Bernd Schneider (22-David Odonkor 83), 5-Sebastian Kehl, 13-Michael Ballack, 18-Tim Borowski (7-Bastian Schweinsteiger 73); 20-Lukas Podolski, 11-Miroslav Klose (10-Oliver Neuville 111).

ITALY (4-4-1-1): 1-Gianluigi Buffon; 19-Gianluca Zambrotta, 23-Marco Materazzi, 5-Fabio Cannavaro, 3-Fabio Grosso; 20-Simone Perrotta (7-Alessandro Del Piero 104), 21-Andrea Pirlo, 8-Gennaro Gattuso, 16-Mauro Camoranesi (15-Vincenzo Iaquinta 90); 10-Francesco Totti; 9-Luca Toni (11-Alberto Gilardino 74).

Referee: Benito Archundia (Mexico).

Linesmen: Jose Ramirez (Mexico) and Hector Vergara (Canada). —Reuters