Italy beat a 10-men French side at a sold out stadium in Zurich to advance to the quarter finals of Euro 2008 thanks to Holland's win over Romania.
The game started at a high level with both teams knowing that only a win would do.
Franck Ribery had to go off early after colliding with Italy's Zambrotta. He was replaced by Nasri.
Luca Toni saw an early chance go begging after Abidal misjudged a long ball and Toni was obviously low on confidence as he fired in the shot first time, even though he had more than enough time to take a few touches and pick his spot.
However, that chance set the tone for the match and it was the same pair that later resulted in the Italy's opening goal. Another long ball was played over the top and Abidal misjudged the flight of the ball again. Toni was onto it in a flash and this time Abidal was made to pay for his mistake. He conceded a penalty and then received his marching orders.
To balance out his defense, Raymond Domenech took off Samir Nasri 16 minutes after replacing Ribery. He was replaced by defender Jean-Alain Boumsoung.
Pirlo calmly slotted home the penalty to put Italy 1-0 up in the 25th minute and France was down to 10 men.
The goal spurred on the Italians and they continuously blew chance after chance. Luca Toni was the main culprit. The commentator on the BBC was saying at one point that Toni could have had TWO hat tricks during the game.
Needless to say, Italy and Toni missed a host of chances towards the end of the first half
France did not give up, but although they showed plenty of character, they failed to find the finishing touch to level the score before half-time.
In the second half, news of Holland taking the lead against Romania filtered through. This, however, failed to spur on the Italians, who seemed content to defend their 1-0 lead.
With France, and in particular Benzema, gaining momentum, Italy got their second goal.
With Pirlo off the pitch, free kick duties were put on the shoulders of De Rossi. His powerful shot bounced off Henry's foot and sent Coupet the wrong way.
Italy was 2-0 up in the luckiest fashion.
This seemingly put the result beyond doubt, but Buffon did have one last contribution to make. He produced a stunning one-handed save to deny Benzema's curled effort which was heading for the far corner.
Italy held on for the victory and, combined with Holland's 2-0 victory over Romania, they were safely through.
They will now face an in-form Spain side with a lot of expectations.
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