Italians celebrate on Auckland streets [video report]

Alessandro Fantoni cheers on Italy at Gina's Pizza and Pasta Bar in Symonds Street, Auckland. Picture / Richard Robinson

Traffic at the intersection of Symonds Street and Khyber Pass Road in Auckland was halted more than once this morning as ecstatic Italy supporters flooded onto the street following their World Cup victory over France on penalties.

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More than 200 Italians, wannabe Italians and a handful of traitorous French, had packed Gina's Pizza and Pasta Restaurant from 6am, praying their team would lift the cup for the first time in 24 years.

But they had an anxious wait.

Play swung from one end of the pitch to the other throughout, swinging Italian emotions with it.

By fulltime, the scores were level one-apiece, and there was a further 30 minutes of anxiety as extra time was played out.

Italy does not have a great record on penalties, and when extra-time finished 1-1 the tension was all too much for Gina's manager Tito Cucciniello, one of the more vocal Italy supporters.

He had to wait outside as the shoot-out was played out.

"I can't watch penalties," he said.

Finally, more than two hours after it all began, Italy was triumphant - and everyone at Ginas took their celebrations to the street.

At the vanguard of the charge was Cucciniello, who, sweating profusely, ran laps of the Symonds St/Kyber Pass intersection, to rousing choruses of "ITALIA".

"We will never watch a final like that again. We were like the New Zealand All Blacks," he said.

His boss, Gina Luckfiel, was just as jubilant. "I will try to keep my heart in my bra, but it doesn't want to stay." Mercifully, it did.

Across town for the French fans it was a different story.

About 150 supporters of Les Bleus gathered at Bouchon in Kingsland, some quaffing red wine, others drinking endless cups of coffee to wash down the crepes flying out of the overworked kitchen.

When Italy's Fabio Grosso nailed the winning penalty in the shoot-out there was a unified aching groan, then it simply went quiet.

They looked at each other, they stared blankly at the screen.

It wasn't like the last penalty shootout between the two countries, said Patrick Geus. "We won that time."

"Allez allez allez" had become "ohhhhhhhhhhh" and it was all because Zinedine Zidane - possibly France's best ever player and playing in his final game - in moment of madness had lost his head, headbutting Marco Materazzi.

"So disappointing," said Mickaela Krinitzky. "You know, there are some people that just stay calm, I think he'd had enough."

Geoffroy De St Germaine could not even speak, shaking his head. "What went wrong? Nothing went wrong, we won, didn't we?" he said in complete denial.

Camillo Bisaccioni, chef at Aquamatta restaurant, was a cheeky Italian supporter who had hidden himself with his two friends in a corner of Bouchon.

Zidane, he said, speaks fluent Italian. "He (Materazzi) probably said something about his wife. It's all part of the game, he's leader of the national team."

Diane Vuletich, her head in her hands, simply said "Oh no".