07.10.06
Campioni del Mondo!
It all came down to kicks, but Italy won 5-3 in shootouts. As soon as the last kick went in, Ancona erupted. It was unlike anything I have ever seen (or heard!). There were fireworks, horns honking until all hours of the morning. People were dressed in Italian flags. Impromptu parades of fans marched through the streets. I found a video clip online of a guy in Rome that stuck his webcam out the window to record the reaction of the fans in the streets.
So despite a nasty head butt that knocked Materazzi on the ground (and sent Zidane to the locker room with a red card on his farewell game), the Azzurri pulled it off.