Italy beat 10-man France at Zurich's sold-out Letzigrund stadium to advance to the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 thanks to Holland's win over Romania. Abidal was shown a straight red card, leaving the French with a mountain to climb following the earlier loss of Franck Ribery to injury.
Andrea Pirlo put the world champions in front in the 25th minute when converting from the penalty spot after Eric Abidal had brought down Luca Toni inside the area. News that the Netherlands had opened the scoring against Romania prompted an almighty roar from the Azzurri faithful and the celebrating continued when De Rossi scored on 62 minutes. The AS Roma midfielder's 30-metre free-kick took a cruel deflection off Henry, wrong-footing Coupet and effectively ending the French challenge. Although Benzema subsequently saw his swerving shot brilliantly tipped wide by Buffon in the 74th minute, there was no way back for France, who finished with just one point after losing back-to-back matches for the first time in 15 years.
