Roberto Baggio, Italian soccer star, had taken part in three World Cups, they were World Cup 1990 in Italy, World Cup 1994 in USA and World Cup 1998 in France.

World Cup '90 was held in Italy, the people there believed that their team could win the cup. But in the first two matches, vs Austria and USA, Baggio was in the bench, and they could only win both by very disappointing results of 1-0. After that, coach Azeglio Vicini realized that a change was needed, so he tried a new forward combination, "Toto" Schillaci and "Roby" Baggio, in the third match vs Czechoslovakia. This gave a positive effect, Italy won 2-0, and Baggio scored one of the best goals in that tournament, then Roberto consequently got a place in the starting eleven.

Italy went to the second round with all victories, it met the champion of the first and the fourth World Cup, Uruguay. Italy easily won 1-0, and through to the third round.

In the third round, Italy's opponent was Ireland. In this game, there was only one goal, scored by striker Schillaci. Ireland's dream was broken while Italy continued its way to championship.

At this stage, there were four teams left, only two could go into the final, Italy needed to beat South American team Argentina, the winner of World Cup '86 and in which had Maradona. But before the match began, coach Vicini told Baggio that he wouldn't be in the starting line-up, the reason was he looked tired, then Roberto argued that "I am 23! I will have eaten grass to play." Nothing could be changed though, Baggio started the match on the bench. Italy was originally leading by one goal, but the disaster began with the first goal scored by an opponent, no teams could scored any goal during the tournament when they met Italy, until semi-final, a header by an Argentine Caniggia, 1-1, which was a turning point of the Italian national team. After 120 minutes, no more goals, all would be decided by penalties. Although Baggio reluctantly scored one penalty, he couldn't help the team to go to the final. Italy was beaten by Argentina.

After Italy's loss, the whole country was shocked, no one could believe that such a strong team could lose! At last Italy could only get a third place by beating England 2-1.

Bring along the honour of World and European footballer of the year 1993, obviously Baggio would be the focus of everyone during the United States World Cup. However, he didn't played well in the first round, no score, nothing much, at that time more and more people suspected his talent. That's true that in the first match lost to Ireland 0-1, second match won over Norway 1-0, and the third match drew with Mexico 1-1, Baggio wasn't in his best condition, and if not because of goal difference, the whole team had gone home already!

Although they passed the first round, the second round was much more challenging. When they met African team Nigeria, everyone in the World, except from the people in Nigeria, believed that it was much more difficult for Italy than Nigeria to lose that match. But the Italians made the world worried. They were a goal behind until one man came back, the hero, the European footballer, the World footballer, Roberto Baggio! He scored a goal in the 88th minute, which saved Italy from the edge of the cliff. The match went into extra time. In the 112nd minute, a great pass by Baggio into the box led to a penalty kick! This was taken by Baggio for sure, and he kicked the ball, the ball hit the woodwork and into the net, Italy won! At that time, there was no doubt that Roberto was the best in the World!

Went into the third round, Italy met Spain. Dino Baggio scored the first goal of the game, but Spain scored a goal back by some luck. Towards the end of the match, it seemed that the match would go into extra time, but two Italian destroyed the Spanish defence, Signori passed the ball to Baggio, and Roberto got pass the goalkeeper and scored! It was already the 88th minute, Italy surely could get into the semi-final. At the end, the referee ended the match with a result of Italy 2, Spain 1.

Semi-final, the opponent was Bulgaria. It was a very hot day. Baggio put the ball into the net beautifully twice within 4 minutes, after that, Bulgaria got one back from a penalty, but it was too late, the final result was 2-1 to Italy. In this match, Roberto hurt his leg, very seriously......

Italy finally was through to the final, but there was a bad news, that is Roberto Baggio's leg was seriously injured, and the doctor told him not to play in the match. However, Baggio said he must play, because if he was not in the team, Italian fans would be very disappointed. At last, the doctor allowed, Roberto Baggio went into the field again.

Italy's final opponent was Brazil, they both had won three World Cups before that, so, who won this match, who would be the first one with four World Cup titles. In this match, Baggio couldn't play well because of his injured leg as well as the hot weather. Both teams couldn't scored any goal, after 90 minutes, and after 120 minutes. The first time, penalties decided, and once again, Italy was on the hand of penalties, and once again, against an American team.

After Baresi missed, Massaro missed too. Then the pressure was on the one who had scored 5 goals in this tournament, the "ponytail" player, Baggio. He put down the ball, walked a few steps back, then after a moment, he started to run. At this moment the World was totally silent, everyone could feel their hearts beating fastly......Baggio kicked the ball! But very disappointedly, over the bar, Italy lost, Baggio lost, every Italian lost, Brazil was the champion of the World, the fourth time. Again, lost in penalty......the Italian players all went back to Italy with only a second place.

At this time, Baggio had no wound in his heart anymore, and in his mind, there was only one thing, "GO TO FRANCE!" Italian press put a lot of pressure on coach Maldini, asked him to bring Baggio to France. A survey before the World Cup showed that about 72% of people in Italy wanted Baggio to be in the team, although only 20% thought that he should be in the starting line-up. This also pointed out that Roberto got a lot of support by the public.

Italy's first game was against Chile, because Del Piero hadn't totally recovered from his injury, Baggio started the game, played the whole 90 minutes, and was playing well. Just a few minutes after the match started, Baggio passed the ball to Vieri after a long pass from captain Maldini, and that became a goal. But Chilian Salas scored 2 goals and they took the lead. However, Italy had a penalty near the end of the match, Baggio took it and he scored, Italy lost 2 points rather than 3.

The second game against Cameroon, Baggio was in the starting line up again, but he looked somehow tired. Although he was not in his best form, his cross became a goal after Di Biagio's header. In the middle of the second half, coach Cesare Maldini put Del Piero in and Baggio out. Then Vieri scored 2 more goals, Italy won 3-0.

The last game of the first round, vs Austria, if Italy won they could avoid Brazil in the second round. But their first goal came at the beginning of the second half, by Vieri. In the middle of the second half, Baggio substituted Del Piero under the cheer of the fans. After that, a minute before the match finished, he co-operated with Inzaghi, and he scored. Everything was too late for Austria though they scored a penalty after less than a minute of Baggio's goal. Italy was through to the second round as the first of Group B.

Their first opponent after the first round was a team which had beaten Brazil twice within a year - Norway. Coach Cesare Maldini put Di Biagio and Moriero in the mid-field, and Vieri and Del Piero up front, Baggio sat in the bench once again, but he didn't play in this match. Italy won 1-0, with the fifth goal of a player who grew up in Sydney, Australia - Christian Vieri.

After won over Norway, Italy's third-round opponent was host France. When they were practising, they spent a lot of time on penalties, because they realised that this match would probably be decided by penalty shoot out. Cesare Maldini once again put Vieri and Del Piero in front. But the fact was Del Piero didn't play like his did in Juventus, plus Vieri and mid-fielders didn't play well, so the first half was controlled by France. Roberto Baggio, Italy's hero and "convict", went into the field with the whole blue national team jersey, then Italy regained some control of the game. But there was no score in 90 minutes. In the first half of extra time, Baggio's volley after a pass by his teammate made the Italian fans jumped up, however, the ball narrowly out-bound, couldn't kick France out of the tournament with a "Golden Goal". Finally, as predicted by the Italian, the match was to be decided by penalty shoot out. After French player Zidane scored, Baggio wiped off the bad memory in America and scored Italy's first penalty, the second of both teams were saved by the goal keepers, the third and the fourth had no problem, France's last one went into the net, at this moment, everything was on Di Biagio, he kicked the ball after one step, but the ball "bang", hit the cross bar, Italy lost after penalties again, and three as a row. At the same time in Rome, there was no sound around the Colosseum except from the noise of the French players and supporters. Baggio said after the match that he didn't like using penalties to decide the winner, he would rather prefer losing in 90 minutes or in extra time.

PauL