10 Great Things about a France vs Italy final

Most of these have nothing to do with football. For that matter, I am not even referring to the particular France vs Italy match that was the WC 2006 final played on Sunday night (that will come in another post). France vs Italy is just great generally because:

1) Both teams are The Blues. This is a gold-mine for arm-chair comedians to crack blue jokes.

2) Best. National Anthems. Ever. The Italian anthem is like a stirring Verdian march (although admittedly, not top-grade Verdi; Google reveals that the composer of the Italian anthem is one Michele Novaro who had no other claim to fame) and of course, France has the great Le Marseillaise which is the most impassioned paean to patriotism in the world (and a piece of music distinguished by an arrangement by the great Hector Berlioz).

3) France has Paris. Italy has Milan. The boys would be well-kitted out, both on the field and off.

4) They usually do travelogues of the two countries as background "colour" before the match. When the two countries are France and Italy, the travelogues cannot be less than gorgeous.

5) France: French breads and pastries, crepes. Italy: Pizza, pasta, olives, cannoli. Yummmmm.

6) The post-match interviews will sound impossibly romantic to those of us who do not understand either languages. Not knocking Spanish or Portuegese, but it would not have been quite the same if it was a Argentina vs Brazil match-up. Never mind if Germany was one of the teams.

7) English commentators with plummy accents twist their tongues attempting to sound authentic when pronouncing the players' names: "Zahm-brou-tah" or "Ah-bi-ni-ahl". They usually come across a fair few awkward ones during their weekly EPL assignments, but having 22 of these on the field can only mean a few hilariously wince-worthy moments for us.

8) We are bound to get some enjoyable singing from the fans of both countries during half-time, and whoever wins, in the post-match celebrations. These are countries with proud musical traditions.

9) The stadium will look GREAT with both sets of fans decked out in blue and/or white and waving the pleasingly almost-symmetrical tri-coloured flags of both countries.

10) In recent years, France vs Italy has usually meant seeing Buffon vs Barthez in the battle of the goalkeepers; one has a name that sounds clownish and the other often looks like a clown and sometimes goal-keeps like one.