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In 2006 when Italy was world champion, it was easy to know how Italy was going to play, with a very strong team defensively, well put together, look at that: Buffon, Cannavaro, Materazzi, Pirlo, Gattuso etc, and before that Italy got good results in cups.
That win by Italy needs to be put into context, as that was the year in which there was a huge scandal as several teams, with the most notable being the Juventus, were accused and penalized by buying referees, and there are very credible rumors that state the Italian players were told that if they won the world cup then no legal repercussions will be pursued against them, so they had motivations which went way beyond soccer during that particular world cup.