Bonucci was ace. Man of the Match in the final and arguably the Player of the Tournament for me, all things considered; a defensive titan throughout, fundamental to Italy's build-play from the back and the score-leveling goal was like the creamiest of icings on the most delightful cake (was half-wishing that he would go haywire like Tardelli/Grosso!
) Pleased for him and Chiellini — made light of their age and seemed to get better as the tournament wore on as men on a mission; you can tell that they constantly hype each other up and get a lot of enjoyment from pure batten-down-the-hatches style defending (much like Baresi, Scirea, Maldini, Nesta, Bergomi, Cannavaro, Burgnich, Ferrara, Gentile et cetera back in the day). At the same time, somewhat sad for the third amico Barzagli, who would have been equally deserving of reveling in this triumph — and for a while was the finest defender at Juventus in my opinion (and arguably the best no-nonsense defender in all of football after Godín), even ahead of the aforementioned duo. Oh well, he can console himself with the 2006 Jules Rimet trophy, which Bonucci and Chiellini obviously missed out on. And hopefully, the storied tradition of rugged Italian defenders will continue with the likes of Bastoni and Pirola in years to come.
