For France, the night of 9 July 2006 is still frozen between two images: Zinédine Zidane rising alone in the Rome heat, and Gianluigi Buffon’s right hand reaching above him. A new documentary, “9 July 2006”, revisits the World Cup final against Italy through around 30 videos, returning to the famous flashpoints as well as moments that slipped beneath the weight of Zidane’s final red card.
The film retraces Zidane’s audacious Panenka penalty, Thierry Gilardi’s celebrated commentary, David Trezeguet’s missed shoot-out attempt and the tense national anthems before kick-off. It also recalls that Zidane injured his shoulder in the 80th minute, long before his dismissal brought an abrupt end to his last match as a professional.
Buffon’s decisive intervention
One sequence stands above the rest: the 104th-minute save that denied Zidane a second goal and France a potential World Cup-winning lead.
Italy were under intense French pressure during the first half of extra time and appeared willing to take the match to penalties. Zidane moved the ball out to Willy Sagnol on the right, before receiving the return pass in the middle of the penalty area. From close range, he met it with a powerful header aimed high towards goal.
It was a moment that carried echoes of Zidane’s two headers against Brazil in the 1998 final. But Buffon, beaten earlier by Zidane’s chipped spot-kick — the only goal he conceded at the tournament apart from Cristian Zaccardo’s own goal in the group stage — produced an extraordinary reaction save.
The Italy goalkeeper, standing 1.92 metres tall and weighing 91kg, got his right hand to the header and pushed it over the crossbar.
“It was probably among the most important saves of my career because it came in the most important game of my career,” Buffon said. “I will always be connected to that save.”
France’s moment gone
Robert Duverne, France’s fitness coach at the time, considered Buffon’s stop the turning point of the final.
“That save represents the match,” he said in the documentary. “He stopped us from winning there. That was the point when I began to accept that we would not become world champions. That incident changed so much.”
Zidane reacted with disbelief and anger as his header was kept out. He would later reflect that, had it gone in, France would have erupted and he would have struggled to return home.
Instead, the forward had only minutes left on the pitch. Italy eventually won the final on penalties after Trezeguet struck the crossbar with France’s second kick, completing a night whose legacy remains far larger than the scoreline alone.
