[5] The two countries also met in the final of the 2000 European Championship, won by France with an extra-time golden goal by David Trezeguet.

[8] On 3 July, Italy and France were matched up for a quarter-final of the 1998 FIFA World Cup, which ended in a goalless draw after 120 minutes.

Zinedine Zidane opened the scoring by converting a controversial 7th-minute penalty kick,[13] conceded by Marco Materazzi, which glanced off the underside of the crossbar and into the goal.

Both teams had chances to score the winning goal in normal time: Luca Toni hit the crossbar in the 35th minute for Italy, later having a header disallowed for offside, while France were not awarded a possible second penalty in the 53rd minute when Florent Malouda went down in the box after a cover tackle from Gianluca Zambrotta.

Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon made a potentially game-saving save in extra time when he tipped a Zidane header over the crossbar.

[15] Despite Italy being one man up for the last ten minutes of extra time, no team managed to score and remained 1–1, as the match went to penalty shoot-out.

The French David Trezeguet was the only player to miss his penalty kick as it hit the crossbar and the ball did not cross the goal line, while Fabio Grosso scored the winner for Italy as the Italians won the shoot-out 5–3.

[24][18] Both sides needed a win to have a shot to progress to the next round, but both would be eliminated no matter what if Romania defeated the Netherlands in the other match.