Italy will come face-to-face their biggest moment of football destiny this evening when they face France in Berlin, with the chance in their hands to seize their fourth FIFA World Cup title and their first for 24 years. Conditions are expected to be warm and dry with the heavy rain of the last few days clearing away.

With three FIFA World Cups already to their name, Italy are rightly held up as one of the great football nations and tonight will give them the opportunity to add to that list of honour. Their first triumph in fact was way back in 1934 at the second ever global showcase, which was held that year on Italian soil. Four years later in France, they became the first team to successfully defend their crown and their third title was secured in 1982 in Spain.

Germany 2006 is Italy's 16th appearance at a FIFA World Cup finals, making Sweden in 1958 the only tournament they did not grace with their presence. Following their successes in 1934 and 1938, Italy lifted the FIFA World Cup for the third time at Spain 1982 thanks largely to an outstanding performance by striker Paolo Rossi. After a subdued start to the tournament, Rossi burst into life in the knockout stages, scoring a hat-trick against Brazil to put his side through to the semi-final, where he struck twice more against Poland. Brimming with confidence, the Italians then went on to beat West Germany 3-1 in the final, with Rossi scoring a sixth tournament goal to clinch the Golden Boot as top scorer.

Italy's strong national league, boasting world-famous sides such as AC Milan, Juventus and Inter Milan, has traditionally provided the platform for a competitive Italy team. Over the years, Serie A has produced true legends of the game such as Roberto Baggio, Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Gianni Rivera and the unforgettable Dino Zoff who played in the victorious 1982 side at the age of 40. Today's national team - which includes many of the outstanding players of this tournament such as Francesco Totti, Fabio Grosso, Gianluigi Buffon and Fabio Cannavaro - ably continues the fine tradition of the Azzurri.

ITALY V FRANCE - A LONG TRADITION

The finalists are certainly no strangers to each other. Neighbours and Latin cousins, Italy and France have met 32 times since their long rivalry was set in motion in Milan on 15 May 1910. Both have enjoyed lengthy periods of supremacy, with the Azzurri holding the whip hand between 1921 and 1978 (19 games without a French win) and Les Bleus turning the tables in dramatic fashion in the time since.

Indeed, the French have all but become Italy's bête noire since their last defeat in 1978, establishing a six-match unbeaten run and dumping their European rivals out of three major tournaments. Overall, however, the record books still smile on Italy, who boast a tally of 17 wins, eight draws and seven losses (75 goals scored, 44 conceded). However, in competitive games (FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championship, and the Olympic Games until the Second World War), the figures slightly favour Les Bleus, who have four wins to the Azzurri’s three. Perhaps most significantly of all, the last three competitive fixtures between these old adversaries have ended with French celebrations at the final whistle.

The long history shared by these two football teams dates right back to the Italians' very first international match, held in Milan on 15 May 1910. Getting off to the best of starts, the hosts registered a convincing 6-2 win and would go on to inflict several more heavy losses before French football properly found its feet, including a 9-4 defeat in Milan on 18 January 1920 and a 7-0 whitewash in Turin on 22 March 1925. Nonetheless, the French were still able to exact temporary revenge at the Antwerp Olympics on 29 August 1920, when handed a place in the quarter-finals after Switzerland pulled out. Les Bleus, 3-1 victors that day, could hardly have imagined it would take another 62 years to repeat the feat.

At the Stade de Colombes in Paris on 12 June 1938, the reigning world champions from across the Alps knocked France out of their own FIFA World Cup in the quarter-finals (3-1), before going on to secure a second title a few days later. The game’s global showpiece was also the setting for Italy's last victory, 40 years later on 2 June 1978 in Argentina. France even took an early lead in that game, Bernard Lacombe shooting home with just 37 seconds on the clock, but goals from Spain '82 star Paolo Rossi and Renato Zaccarelli put Italy on the road to victory before the hour-mark. The Nazionale eventually finished an impressive fourth in Argentina, but unbeknownst to them, a long and miserable sequence was about to begin.
 

The warning signs were there in a friendly on 23 February 1982, when Michel Platini and Daniel Bravo set up France's first win against their old foes in living memory. Then, in the Round of 16 at Mexico 1986, the recently-crowned European champions confirmed their progress with another 2-0 victory, this time with goals from Platini and Yannick Stopyra. The French were on the march now, but their two greatest triumphs still lay ahead. The first could hardly have been more fitting, coming as it did 60 years after their FIFA World Cup quarter-final loss to Italy in their own backyard. Hosts once again, Les Bleus were pitted against their old rivals at the same stage of the competition. This time, however, with so many French players attached to Serie A clubs, they knew their opponents inside-out, and the match itself was an unsurprisingly tight affair. It took penalties to decide a winner, and when Luigi Di Biagio cracked his against the crossbar, the French were heading to the semi-finals (0-0 aet; 4-3 pso). Nine days later, they were crowned world champions for the first time in their history.

As painful as that defeat must have been for the Azzurri, there was worse to come when the two teams were reunited for the UEFA Euro 2000 final in Rotterdam on 2 July. In a match worthy of Alfred Hitchcock at his suspenseful best, the trophy seemed destined to fall into Italian hands until practically the last second of regulation time. Marco Delvecchio's 55th-minute effort looked set to be the winner, but the champagne had been opened too early and Sylvain Wiltord buried an unlikely equaliser in the fourth minute of stoppage-time. That took the game into extra time and, with the momentum firmly with the French, David Trezeguet broke Italian hearts when he volleyed Robert Pires' cross past Francesco Toldo for the golden goal on 103 minutes.

Present that day were the both captains for today's final, Fabio Cannavaro and Zinedine Zidane, and both will ensure their team-mates know their history when they take the field. Given what has gone before, we should be in for a game marked by immense mutual respect and, above all, a stubborn refusal to surrender until the last ball is kicked.

ITALY PREPARING FOR TODAY'S MATCH

Italians unable to travel to Berlin have been busy preparing to join the flag-waving crowds in piazzas and and football stadiums across the nation, reports the ANSA new agency. About 200,000 people are expected to gather this evening in Rome's Circus Maximus, the site of an ancient chariot-racing arena, to watch the match on mega-screens and take part in the fondly expected celebrations afterwards. Likewise huge numbers are expected at Milan's Piazza del Duomo and at central squares in Florence, Naples and Turin. Even though Italy has been in the grip of World Cup fever for weeks now, shops selling the red, white and green 'tricolore' flags and blue national team jerseys have been doing a roaring trade over the week ended. "It's incredible. I've had old ladies buying flags, businessmen buying crazy hats and mums buying shirts for their children," said one shopkeeper near Rome's Trevi fountain.

Up and down the country, plans were being changed and travel arrangements adjusted so that Italians could be in front of a screen by 8 pm on Sunday night. In the tiny Calabrian village of Gioiosa Jonica locals rescheduled the annual procession with the church's statue of the Virgin Mary to Saturday so that everyone would be free the next day. In the southern town of Corigliano Calabro, the birthplace of Italy midfielder Rino Gattuso, football fans were preparing triumphal march for Sunday night with every one wearing their local hero's shirt.

Meanwhile, back in Rome, plans were taking shape for a grand event on Monday night to welcome home the Italian players. "They deserve a celebration regardless of the result," said Mayor Walter Veltroni. "They have put on a fantastic show for all of us". The Italian team is scheduled to land at a military base north of Rome, where there will be no chance of fans mobbing them. Soon after they will be greeted by top Italian officials before being escorted to Circus Maximus to be feted by thousands of fans. Like many Italians, a restaurant in Viareggio was taking superstitious precautions on Friday to stop fate spoiling the planned party. The restaurant owners have removed Normandy oysters and champagne from the menu for the next two days.