Italy face France in the final of the World Cup Finals 2006 in the Olympiastadion in Berlin on Sunday evening, with Italy’s Azzurri hoping to lift their fourth World Cup, and France hoping to win their second, in addition to the one they won on home-soil in 1998.

The 34-year-old France captain Zinedine Zidane, who is retiring from football completely after the World Cup, is hoping to finish his glittering career by lifting the World Cup trophy for the second time as captain of Les Bleus.

Another France player who will be retiring from international football after tonight's final against Italy as will fellow 1998 World Cup winner, Juventus defender Lilian Thuram.

Italy will be hoping to get revenge for their Euro 2000 final defeat, which the Azzurri lost to France on penalties after leading the match 1-0 until injury-time in the second-half.

Italy head coach Marcello Lippi will be without AC Milan defender Alessandro Nesta who is suffering from a groin injury, but Lippi is likely to start the match with the same team that beat Germany in the semi-final.

Italy (probable): Gianluigi Buffon; Gianluca Zambrotta, Fabio Grosso, Fabio Cannavaro, Marco Materazzi; Gennaro Gattuso, Mauro Camoranesi, Andrea Pirlo, Simone Perrotta; Francesco Totti; Luca Toni.

France (probable): Fabien Barthez; Willy Sagnol, Eric Abidal, Lilian Thuram, William Gallas; Claude Makelele, Patrick Vieira, Florent Malouda, Franck Ribery, Zinedine Zidane; Thierry Henry.

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