NEVER can there have be a 0-0 draw like it, never car so much have happened in 90 scoreless minutes. It was both uplifting and poignant for like many international foot balling epics, the good guys lost. And the bad guys were the Germans.
Ever the minimalists, Germany could have afforded to go through with a 1-0 or 2-0 defeat but were utterly devoid of ambition and the positive intentions seen in the first two group games. Motivated purely by a desire to put Italy out, they held out for 90 excruciating, nerve jangling minutes, the last half hour with ten men.
For four of those minutes it seemed that Italy would go through despite Germany's obduracy, the 84th to the 88th. The Italians burst out in a wave of `Italia, Italia' as news reverberated like a bush fire, of Russia's comeback 40 miles away. The German populated Stretford End went quiet but then, four minutes later, burst into song again.
Never can one nation have derived so much shameless joy out of evicting another country from a tournament. They sang joyously long after the whistle. Stunned Italians looked on bitterly. Poor little Gianfranco Zola had inquired forlornly for confirmation of events at Anfield.
Like life, sport can indeed be cruel. Like Gary McAllister and the Scots, Zola and the Italians will have to live with a crucial missed penalty and all the other ones that got away in a desperate last, final fling to undo earlier damage. The really sad thing is that Euro `96 has lost one of the best sides in the competition and all the fanaticism, colour and foot balling tradition that goes with them while it gained a moderate one in the Czech Republic.
In Italy's case the wounds had largely been self inflicted, with Arrigo Sacchi now likely to face the consequences of the arrogant quintet of changes which surely contributed to the Czech defeat which ultimately cost them runners up spot.
Still, they gave everything to overcome that mother of all own goals, and no manager has ever made himself more hoarse or done more from the bench.
The Italians had ample opportunity to calm frayed Latin nerves as early as the eighth minute, but Zola stabbed nervously at a penalty. To compound Italy's sense of injustice, German keeper Andreas Kopke should have been dismissed by the Belgian official Guy Boethals for deliberately upending Pierluigi Casiraghi to deny him a certain goal. The ghost of Toni Schumacher lives on, and the bitterness of this one will live in the Italian psyche for many a day.
Maybe too, for the rest of us, on this unforgettable night. The Theatre of Dreams hardly had a Manchester accent inside it, the Italians drawing on their expatriate support from Ireland and elsewhere, raucously out singing and apparently outnumbering the opposition by three to one. The same as it ever is here then.
There was a frenzied commitment to the Azzurri's pressure game, but it was controlled nonetheless. The Germans were hounded off the ball for much of the opening half hour, Italy out passing them and pouring men forward.
Before ultimately fading, the semi retired Roberto Donadoni (with due respect to the fledgling US league) proved a surprising success in place of Allessandro del Piero, who surprisingly remained on the bench. Casiraghi (who ran himself into the ground more than anyone) and Zola were ever willing accomplices to the blue wave that all but engulfed Germany in a whirlwind opening.
Abetted by a rousing rendition of the Italian anthem, it seemed as if the Azzurri were playing with an extra man. Of course, after seven minutes they should have been. Setting the tone for much of what followed, Matthias Sammer lost possession to the live wire Casiraghi who bore down on goal, rounded Kopke and was denied a certain score when the German keeper quite blatantly raised his left leg to trip the Lazio striker.
It may have seemed churlish of the Italians to encircle Goethals demanding Kopke's dismissal, but they were right. Quite why the directive regarding the professional foul was ever brought in is a moot point if it doesn't apply for such a blatant example.
Sure enough, Kopke guessed correctly and saved with ease low to his left. Game though he was thereafter, one sensed Zola's self confidence never quite recovered. He has his missed penalty, Roberto Baggio and Franco Baresi theirs the Italians have lost penalty shoot outs in the semi final and final of the last two World Cups.
They still gave it their bravest shot, forcing 10 corners to none and having 11 attempts on goal to Germany's six. Kopke couldn't catch a cold, punching everything that came close to him, Steffen Freund had a stinker and Thomas Strunz completed a miserable night by being sent off for a second cautionable tackle on Donadoni on the hour.
However, no one reacts under pressure better than the Germans. Resiliently they held a shape of sorts, Sammer a composed libero as his colleagues often hoofed the ball out of play, while the hardly noticeable Dieter Eilts tackled everything that moved and epitomised their characteristic physical strength.
With Donadoni causing mayhem, Diego Fuser's pull back across the face of the goal after 21 minutes cried out for a final touch. Juergen Klinsmann was having to come deep as many of his team mates ran away from the man in possession, but did flash one header wide after 27 minutes.
Otherwise, it was all Italy, each agonising miss tugging at their nerve ends. Kopke punched away pile drivers by Donadoni and Fuser either side of Casiraghi failing to square the ball inside for the unmarked Fuser and Zola.
The Germans regrouped after the break and played deeper, granting Italy the ball, especially after Strunz's dismissal. Zola overcooked a through ball for Roberto di Matteo before Sacchi threw on a third striker, Enrico Chiesa, but it cried out for del Piero on the left.
Half chances abounded and the pressure was unrelenting, but Sammer or somebody kept getting in the way at the last. Then the Russians put Italy through some more torture.
