If France was crowned world champion for the second time in its history in 2018, the Blues could perhaps have lifted the Grail in 2006. Indeed, while the Tricolores faced Italy in the final in Berlin, the Zinedine Zidane’s expulsion after his header on Marco Materazzi may have been a game-changer. Interviewed by the newspaper OleRaymond Domenech, who was the coach at the time, still does not explain ZZ’s gesture.
“What happened was like when there’s a plane crashing, little things adding up. (…) You don’t have to change a lot of things. What happened was a disaster, and it’s not really explained. Before, there was no problem, the team was fine, everything was fine. No one can say exactly why this happened”he confided.