The most fitting summary I can find for my feelings after Euro 2000 is that the best team won the title but the better team lost the Final itself.

I feel Italy deserved to win on Sunday night albeit that France are worthy champions overall. Italy should have won the game 2-0 given the chances they created after the opening goal and I feel they played some great football.

People have to realise that defending is a discipline in itself and the way Italy worked for each other marks them down as an excellent unit. Football is a team game and the way Dino Zoff's players supported each other was exemplary.

France are a fine side too, of course, but I just felt on the night the Italians didn't deserve to lose and certainly not in the manner that they did. Francesco Totti worked ever so hard and the way he created the goal was magnificent.

As for the Italian defenders, nothing they did surprised me. I was a young man of 21 when I went to AC Milan and it was an eyeopener to discover the way their players regarded defending.

It was a case of almost anything goes, so long as you get away with it. I had my fingers pulled and bent back, they stood on my feet at set pieces to stop me jumping or they would pinch you while marking you.

It was all designed to make you lose concentration for a fraction of a second and having played against Claudio Gentile I can tell you I experienced all of these and more.

Retaliation cost me a couple of red cards - I received one in my debut in the Italian Cup, for example - but it had the effect of them being a little wary of me.

Guys like Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro and Mark Iuliano are masters of their art and from the professional point of view it was illuminating to watch the way they backed each other up.

They are like bouncing balls too in the way they recover and get on their feet after making a tackle and I think any youngster wanting to be a defender could learn from watching the Italians.

My overall impression was perhaps put best by Johan Cruyff. He said that we in British football seem to believe the point of the game is running as fast as possible whereas, in fact, it should be to control the ball instantly and pass it as quickly as possible.

That is the continental way, with the focus on first touch.

Any kids learning should take that on board and if you want an example of how quick passing can be effective, think of a goal Rangers once scored against Leeds at Elland Road when Ally McCoist netted with a header after we broke upfield in barely ten seconds.

Am I pessimistic for England and Scotland? Not overly so because France failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, yet look what a team has emerged.

Interview by Peter Jardine