The Italians must believe fate, and history, is on their side in this World Cup.

A team that has rarely reached the heights this tournament, and certainly not been spectacular, find themselves in the final.

There are shades of 1982, the last World Cup-winning year for Italy; indeed more than just shades, but a series of those strange coincidences that so often invade football.

If the Italians are looking for signs that fate is on their side, they had no further to look than Rome. In 1982, Pope John Paul II was left a disappointed Pontiff as his native Poland lost out to Italy in the semi-final.

Tonight, Pope Benedict XVI, a Bayern Munich fan, was watching the match from the Vatican City and he too suffered heartache as his homeland of Germany were beaten.

There were other signs from the past too: just as in 1982 Italy started the tournament poorly but improved with every match, and now, as 24 years ago, Italian football is recovering from a shameful corruption scandal.

Fate, of course, meant little to the 65,000 fans in Borussia Dortmund's fantastic Westfalenstadion, the stands built so close to the pitch you can hear the thud as the ball is kicked.

For the majority, there were tears as the hosts' brave dream died just seconds from that virtual certainty - a German victory on penalties.

This was a game of contrasting styles but with much to savour: two teams without the passing brilliance of Argentina and Brazil but each with their own strengths.

The Italians, inspired by the outstanding Juventus centre-back Fabio Cannavaro were as good defensively as any team we have seen this tournament, while Andrea Pirlo was a constant danger with his passing vision. No wonder they had conceded just one goal in the tournament before tonight - and that was an own goal.

The Germans were powered by the momentum that had taken them to the brink of a home final, and by realising by taking the virtues of team unity to its ultimate conclusion.

Jurgen Klinsmann had ordered a high-energy approach, harassing the Italians in numbers while Marcello Lippi had instructed his men to seek openings through set-pieces and balls over the top to try and turn the hosts' lanky centre-backs.

Those tactics created a game that was an intriguing clash, fascinating to watch yet sparse in terms of clear-cut chances until in injury time tired legs led to open spaces.

Italy certainly enjoyed the better of the first half where Cannavaro's timing and reading of the game made him the outstanding player on the pitch, even if Bernd Schneider should really have buried the one outstanding opportunity of the opening 45 minutes.

If all of Germany chewed their nails to the quick during the break, they would have been relieved to see a fresh spring to the hosts' stride in the second half, with goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon thwarting both Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski.

There was precious little for Italy in attack and when the England-born Simone Perrotta did beat the offside trap Jens Lehmann kept the 1982 analogy going with a Harald Schumacher-style punched clearance that took out the Roma midfielder at the same time - fortunately he got up unscathed.

Within the first two minutes of injury time Italy made a nonsense of the creative vacuum that had engulfed them in the previous 45 by hitting the woodwork not once but twice.

Alberto Gilardino wriggled past Michael Ballack and tried to beat Lehmann at the near-post - in fact he did so, but did not beat the post and had to watch the ball bobble along the line.

Almost immediately Gianluca Zambrotta's rising drive crashed into the crossbar, and now we would see how Germany coped under real pressure.

In fact, they responded well with the turbo-charged super-sub David Odonkor laying a goal on a plate for Podolski only for the striker to suffer a nightmare moment and head wide.

There was time for Buffon to make one more hell of a save, from Podolski, before fate waved its fickle wand.

Pirlo played a pearler of a pass to Fabio Grosso who curled the ball beautifully past Lehmann, then Alessandro Del Piero, with the last kick of the match, sent the hosts to an agonising defeat.