FRANCE 98 – Italy-France – C. Maldini : “My players gave their all right to the last drop of sweat and I've no criticism to make”

Comments from Cesare MALDINI, the ITALY team coach:

“First of all I would like to congratulate FRANCE. My players played well throughout the competition. They gave their all right to the last drop of sweat and I’ve no criticism to make. The penalty shoot-out is a kind of lottery and this is the third time that we have been eliminated from a World Cup match in this way. It seems like some kind of curse. It was a balanced game but FRANCE had the advantage of being the home team and FRANCE is a good team. I have no complaints to make of the way my players played. We didn’t miss out on anything and played well. Nothing went wrong and the 0-0 score at the end of 90 minutes showed this. You have to take into account the strength of the opponents. With two forwards and even a third playing in the hole behind them I don’t see how we could have attacked any more. As for DEL PIERO (10) I think he did his job. ITALY was never really in trouble except twice in the first half. The French forwards such as GUIVARC’H (9), TREZEGUET (20) and DJORKAEFF (6) didn’t give our goalkeeper much to do”.