The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th edition of the tournament, and was held in Germany from June 9 to July 9. There were 32 teams including the host country, and a total of 64 matches were played in 12 stadiums. National squads were divided into eight groups and each group contained four teams. The preliminary matches were round-robins to determine which teams would qualify for the knock-out stage of 16 teams.

2006 World Cup Groups

A - Poland, Ecuador, Germany and Costa Rica
B - England, Sweden, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago
C - Argentina and the Netherlands, Serbia and Montenegro, the Ivory Coast
D - Portugal, Mexico, Iran and Angola
E – Italy, the United States, Czech Republic and Ghana
F - Brazil, Croatia, Japan, and Australia
G - France, Switzerland, South Korea and Togo
H - Spain, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia

Sixteen teams reached the second round, eight teams qualified for the World Cup quarter-finals, and four teams went on to the semi-finals. Brazil, the 2002 world champions, were eliminated in the quarter-finals, along with Argentina, another strong contender. The semi-finals became an all European affair, with Germany and Italy going head to head and France and Portugal facing off. The two teams that met in the finals were Italy and France. Germany took the third position to get the bronze, defeating Portugal in the third place match.

2006 World Cup Finals

Italy and France were tied 1-1 after the regulation time and the match was extended to extra time without any results. There was some controversy in the final match when French captain Zinodene Zidane head-butted Italian defender Materazzi in the chest, when he didn't even have possession of the ball. Zidane was red-carded and marched off the field.

The match dragged on to the nail-biting stage of the penalty shoot-out. Italy won the cup by 5-3, making it their fourth World Cup win and becoming the second most successful soccer squad after Brazil.