Italy win the World Cup

Materazzi had an incredible night, giving away the penalty and scoring the equaliser twelve minutes later.

But all the talk will be about Zidane, shown a straight red in his final ever match as a professional and in the World Cup final no less. Five minutes into the second period of extra-time he exchanged words with the Inter Milan defender, which seemed to be good-natured until the France captain turned around and aimed a headbutt directly into Materazzi's chest.

It was an inexplicable act, and one can only assume that Materazzi's final words to Zizou were sufficiently provocative to inspire such a reaction. He almost got away with it too, the incident so off-the-ball that neither referee Horacio Elizondo nor his assistants initially spotted it, only acting when Italy's players and coach implored him to speak with the fourth and fifth officials.

Only one penalty in an almost perfect shoot-out was missed, substitute David Trezeguet sending his spot-kick against the underside of the bar and on the wrong side of the goal-line for France.

France had actually come close to taking control of the match in its latter stages, Italy appearing to tire perhaps as a result of their 120minute semi-final exertions against Germany earlier in the week.

Zidane had put France ahead after a frantic opening seven minutes, chipping his spot-kick off the underside of the crossbar and the right side of the goal-line after Materazzi was perhaps harshly adjudged to have brought down Florent Malouda.

Materazzi made amends though, rising imperiously above Patrick Vieira to head home Andrea Pirlo's 19th minute corner, and almost made it 2-1 minutes mater from a similar scenario.

France struggled to deal with Italy's set-pieces, the twin aerial threat of Materazzi and Luca Toni - who hit the crossbar with another header from a corner - posing problems for a defence that is not the tallest in the world.

At the other end, the once-again excellent Fabio Cannavaro did a decent job of shackling Thierry Henry, who looked more effective when drifting wide, although this gave France little in the way of cutting-edge. There were times when the tireless duo of Malouda and Franck Ribéry sent testing balls across the face of goal, but with Henry withdrawn or drawn wide much of the time there was no-one to convert.

Zidane showed flashes of genius but appeared to have peaked against Brazil, some of his flicks and through balls not coming off as expected and his influence markedly waning as the match went on. Henry had one very good chance to score in the second half but shot tamely at Gianluigi Buffon from close range, the Juventus 'keeper also saving smartly from the same player later on and from a Zidane header in extra-time.

And while France had a decent shout for a penalty when Malouda appeared to be brought down again in the area, this time by Gianluca Zambrotta, Italy created the best chances, Pirlo sending a trademark free-kick inches wide and Toni seeing a headed goal disallowed for what appeared to be a marginal offside decision.

The win gives Italy their fourth World Cup and their first major title since 1982, while the future of France coach Raymond Domenech hangs in the balance with his contract due to expire after the defeat.