A classic Italian checkmate

Remarkable. Quite, quite remarkable. Even by the invigorating standards of this fantastic football tournament, the epic that stretched across almost three hours of Amsterdam's pure blue evening yesterday entered a new league in its intrigue and entertainment.

The upshot was that it is Italy, courtesy of a 3-1 win in Euro 2000's first penalty shoot-out, not the co-hosts and favourites Holland, who will face the world champions France in Rotterdam on Sunday.

Even when the game was over the drama kept on coming, Frank Rijkaard resigning as The Netherlands manager. Rijkaard had been in the job just two years but last night's failure clearly devastated his orange dream. Nevertheless, it felt like an impetuous decision. It was not Rijkaard who failed from the spot.

The news somewhat overshadowed the game and its fascinating denouement. Though the home side took only four penalties in that dramatic addendum, Paul Bosvelt's final miss was Holland's fifth failure from the spot in the game. In normal time, first Frank De Boer had his 38th-minute penalty saved by Francesco Toldo. Seventeen minutes into the second half Patrick Kluivert relieved De Boer of the 12-yard duties only to see his more authoritative kick strike an upright and rebound to safety.

The Italians were theatrically outraged by each penalty award, especially the first, but then their fiery sense of injustice had been fuelled four minutes before De Boer's penalty when the German referee Markus Merk sent off Gianluca Zambrotta for a second bookable offence on Boudewijn Zenden. Undoubtedly Zambrotta was stupid and unprofessional in his tackling but Merk's decision-making was pedantic yesterday.

Zambrotta's dismissal left Italy with an inferior number of players for the 56 minutes that remained of the 90 and then for the half hour that followed. That Italy held out against a team regarded as one of the most attacking and gifted in the world was a tribute to the goalkeeper Toldo and the three men in front of him, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Nesta and Mark Iuliano. All three were magnificent.

The tremendous resolution of that trio of defenders meant that the thinly-disguised plan of manager Dino Zoff after Zambrotta's red card, to hang on for penalties, worked. In other circumstances Italy would have been lambasted for such a tactic but they earned nothing but admiration last night.

Italy, in fact, nearly won with a `golden goal' in the 100th minute when substitute Marco Delvecchio sprinted on to Francesco Totti's upfield clearance and saw his shot deflected inches wide by the sole of Edwin Van Der Sar's right boot. An Italian winner then would not have been unwarranted.

Because even after Zambrotta's departure, only occasionally did the Dutch suggest they could utilise their extra man to outmanoeuvre Italy. Kluivert produced just one magic moment shortly before half-time when he pulled down a De Boer pass, totally throwing Nesta in doing so. Kluivert's shot was narrowly wide.

Kluivert could claim a lack of support did not help him. Zenden and Marc Overmars excited in patches while Dennis Bergkamp was taken off with the game drifting toward extra-time having had his most influential spell over an hour earlier. Then, in the 15th minute, Bergkamp had struck

the foot of the post following a beautiful gliding run past Iuliano and deliberate low drive. It may have been Bergkamp's last international.

Toldo was beaten then but escaped, and considering the first half remained goalless, there was still enough incident to fill a sizeable notebook. Much to the Italians' annoyance Merk seemed intent on filling his. Merk showed the yellow card four times to blue shirts in the opening 45 minutes, plus Luigi Di Biagio later, and was to book four Dutchmen too.

The game was not dirty, it was absorbing. Zambrotta had first caught Zenden seconds after the Bergkamp effort but when he did so again Merk had his hand in his pocket maybe before he remembered Zambrotta was already booked.

Having whinged plenty about that, the Italians were raging four minutes later when Nesta was judged to have held Kluivert unfairly in the area. In Italy it is called defending. De Boer's penalty was weak, Toldo pushed it away and Italy reorganised.

Alessandro Del Piero, a radical selection by Zoff, was withdrawn to right midfield. Holland were frustrated. Edgar Davids tried to engender some momentum and when he collected a Zenden pass in the 62nd minute, Davids was felled by Iuliano as he entered the Italy box. De Boer stayed on the halfway line as Kluivert took over. The score was still 0-0 when Kluivert had finished though.

With Italy stifling the Dutch imagination, extra time looked increasingly inevitable. After Delvecchio and Kluivert both went close, penalties were a certainty. When they came Di Biagio drilled in the first. Then De Boer stepped up. Brave or foolish? Hit straight at Toldo - foolish.

Gianluca Pessotto made it 2-0 to Italy and Holland knew the game was up when Jaap Stam blasted the next so high it nearly landed in the stadium's second tier. With a brilliant chip Totti made it 3-0, and although Kluivert at last hit the net and then Paolo Maldini missed, the end came when Toldo saved again, this time from Bosvelt. Toldo was engulfed by his team-mates and even Zoff smiled.

Italy move on. But for the Dutch, out of Euro 2000 and now managerless, the whole of Holland had been given a massive kick in the Netherlands.