SPORTS NEWS.

Grosso was a member of the 2006 FIFA World Cup winning team. In the Round of 16 against Australia, Italy was awarded a penalty in stoppage time after Australian defender Lucas Neill made an attempted sliding tackle which was considered an obstruction foul against Grosso. The ruling was controversial.[6] The penalty was converted by Francesco Totti and consequently Australia were knocked out of the tournament. On 4 July 2006, he scored the first goal against Germany in the 119th minute with a curling left-footed strike beyond the reach of Jens Lehmann into the Germans' net from the edge of the box and famously ran around screaming "I don't believe it!" as his teammates celebrated.[7] In the final five days later, he scored the winning penalty against France, giving Italy their fourth World Cup.[8]

Grosso was also included in Roberto Donadoni's European Cup team in 2008 and was the first choice left back in Marcello Lippi's Azzurri squad.

He was called up to the pre-World Cup training camp along with team-mate Gianluigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini, Fabio Cannavaro, Nicola Legrottaglie, Mauro Camoranesi, Antonio Candreva, Claudio Marchisio and Vincenzo Iaquinta on 4–5 May[9] and was included in the 30-men preliminarily squad announced on 11 May.[10] However in the second training camp, he was dropped along with Juve team-mate Candreva.