Minutes after he had become a new national hero, Italian goalkeeper Francesco Toldo walked into last night's post-match news conference at the Arena in Amsterdam to receive his Man of the Match award.

As he received his trophy, an Italian journalist asked: "Francesco, you've just saved four penalties. How on earth did you do it? "I just don't know", came the disarming reply.

Toldo's comment might well apply to the entire Italian performance - they should have been beaten long before extra time. But the weight of national expectations clearly got to a Dutch side who actually caused the Italian defence only limited problems.

Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard reacted to the defeat by handing in his resignation. Rijkaard said that he had wanted to lead the Netherlands to Euro 2000 success and that, having failed in this intention, it was only right that he hand over to someone else.

"It was nothing to do with the match in itself. Just that I had a goal in mind and this generation of football players deserved it.

"As for the penalties tonight, I can offer no explanation as to why we missed them, since we practised them a lot in training. One thing was sure, however: when it went to the shootout, Italy had a pyschological advantage since we had already missed two penalties during normal time."

He said the first penalty miss by Frank de Boer turned the game. "The deciding moment was the first penalty. "We had the game under control but we could not get the goal. Towards the end it was too slow and we were trying to do too many things."

Rijkaard and the Netherlands were denied by an Italian side that offered an updated, dusted-off version of sacrosanct Italian footballing values. In Italy, the first rule is: do not concede a goal. The second rule is, of course: hit the opposition on the counter if possible. Not for the first time in this tournament, Italy applied those rules with a minimum of fuss and maximum of efficiency last night.

Gianluca Pessotto, who took one of Italy's successful penalties, said he had practised them in training. "I put it further into the corner than I usually do and I also hit it to the opposite side from normal - just to make sure I didn't miss," he added.

Italian coach Dino Zoff argued that the 35th-minute sending-off had helped his side, saying: "This side has a really great team spirit and the sending-off, the penalties against us just made them fight all the harder."

A more accurate summing-up might have come from one wit in the Italian section of the press box who, at the end of the 90 minutes, said: "Lads, this has been a tactical masterpiece. We've pinned them into our own half of the pitch all night long and now they're cooked."