Recent years - italy

In the last fifteen years, Azzurri played an important role and though they had no major successes, their role on the world stage was somewhat remarkable.

Italy hosted the World Cup for the second time in 1990. Although favored to win and unscored upon through their first five matches of the tournament, they were eliminated in the semifinal round by Argentina, losing 4-3 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw through regular and extra time. They went on to defeat England 2–1 in the third place play-off.

In the 1994 World Cup, Italy started slowly but reached the final against Brazil. After a 0–0 draw at the end of extra time, they lost the subsequent penalty shootout 3-2. Roberto Baggio, who had five goals in the tournament prior to the finals, notoriously missed the final penalty kick of the match over the crossbar.

The Italian side found themselves in another critical shootout, the third in a row, during the1998 World Cup, playing France to a 0-0 draw after extra time in the quarterfinals, but losing 4-3 in the shootout.

The Italian participation to 2000 European Championship was followed with skeptisism, but Azzurri won an incredible semi-final against home team the Netherlands â€” Italian goalkeeper Francesco Toldo saved one penalty during the match and two during the shootout, Netherlands players missed one penalty during the match and one during the shootout – a success rate of one penalty scored on six tries. The team obtained the second place in the torunament, losing the final 2–1 against France (golden goal in extra time), allowing les Bleus equalizing goal 30 seconds before the end of the match.

In the 2002 World Cup, Italy was eliminated by co-host country South Korea in the round of sixteen. The match was marked by controversy, as umpire Byron Moreno gave Francesco Totti the second yellow card in extra time for an alleged dive and disallowing an Italian goal. Replays seemed to indicate that the card was unfounded, but the decision stood and South Korea won 2-1, again with a golden goal in extra time.

A three-way tie in the group stage of the 2004 European Championship left Italy as the "odd man out", and they failed to qualify for the quarterfinals, finishing behind Denmark and Sweden on the basis of number of goals scored in matches among the tied teams. There was some controversy as both Sweden and Denmark knew before their final match that a 2-2 draw between them would qualify both Scandanavian sides, leaving the Italians out. Totti again found himself at the center of controversy for the Italian side after being suspended three games for a spitting incident in the match against Denmark.