The noise from the crowd whenever Cesare Maldini's players stepped up to take spot-kicks was incredible and it may have just given the French the edge during this nail-biting climax. And home advantage could really begin to pay dividends now as France have reached the semi-finals.

The French have had the momentum ever since their opening game demolition of South Africa and despite struggling against Italy and Paraguay, two very defensively-orientated sides, they have still made it through to the semi-finals.

After playing a more adventurous style in the previous World Cup and in Euro'96 without success, Italy reverted to type and adopted a very cautious approach against the hosts.

They felt they could hold the French while Christian Vieri, who has been in a hot scoring streak, might have nicked a goal at the other end.

The Italians havefocused on defence throughout the tournament but I don't think you can criticise Cesare Maldini too heavily for that.

The Italians always seem to have the edge when it comes to being tactically aware. They know every trick in the book and maintain their concentration better than any team I have ever played against.

It is almost as if they have a clock ticking away in their head telling them exactly how much time is left and when to launch an attack.

The Italian goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca has impressed me during this tournament and he was at his best to make a vital save from Yourik Djorkaeff minutes from the end of normal time.

I always felt he was a very gifted performer but that he just suffered the occasional lapse in confidence and form.

He has been on the top of his game during this World Cup though and Italy have hardly missed the presence of their injured number one goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi.

The French shot-stopper Fabien Barthez has not been worked very hard yet and is prone to theoccasional danger but he looks very confident.The way he was laughing and joking before the penalty shoot-out gave off all the right signals to his team-mates.

Confidence is vital to a goalkeeper and you always had the feeling Barthez would save at least one of the spot-kicks, which he did.