A GOOD DAY TO CRY IN ROME

Meanwhile, in Italy . . .

“Penalty kicks are an invention of the devil,” Gazzetta dello Sport editor Candido Cannavo wrote in a front-page column, “but this time our right to detest them is very questionable.”

In a reference to the team’s defense-first tactics, the newspaper’s front page had the banner headline: “France is better . . . Adieu ‘Fort Italy.’ ”

Another of the sports dailies, Corriere dello Sport, blared on its front page, “Cursed penalties. But it also is our fault.”

“We were very unlucky,” editor Mario Sconcerti wrote, “but not good.”