#5 Fabio Grosso’s fall – Italy vs Australia 2006
In the second round of the 2006 World Cup, Italy were facing Australia for a place in the quarter-finals. The Azzurri were down to 10 men and had used all three of the allowed substitutes as the game was inevitably inclining towards extra time and players were already showing signs of exhaustion.
It was the final few minutes of injury time when left back Fabio Grosso pounced on a mistake by the Australians and cut into the penalty area, eventually going down under Lucas Neill’s challenge. The referee wasted no time to point to the spot, and Francesco Totti made no mistake in burying the spot kick which was the last kick of the game.
Italy went on to progress to the quarter-finals and eventually lifted the World Cup after a gap of 24 years. However, the legitimacy of the foul on Grosso is still questioned as replays showed that the Italian was certainly looking for a penalty.
It would appear that Grosso had dived as Neill himself went to the ground. While there was definite contact, it could be argued that it was nothing to earn the Italians a penalty kick. Nonetheless, Italians claim that they were worthy winners as they had dominated the game before Marco Materazzi was shown a straight red card for a foul that was worthy of a yellow.
