Befitting a man who plays football as if he has all the time in the world even in the most dramatic of circumstances, Zinedine Zidane fiddled with his watch yesterday as he reflected on Sunday night in Lisbon.
According to the medical people at Real Madrid, Zidane actually suffers from an iron deficiency, which causes him to sweat so effusively during games. Yet everything else about Zidane is cool. As for iron, the man has it in the soul.
It requires a certain amount of steel to step up and do what Zidane did on Sunday, not once but twice. But to hear him speak about it yesterday was to witness a footballer as modest as he is gifted. Everybody wanted to know how he does it. So he explained.
"When I put the ball down I knew how important it was because it was the last chance to get into the game," Zidane said of his free-kick in the first minute of injury time. "Dead-ball situations were the only way to create chances for both sides. So I knew - I just had a go.
"I just swing a boot at it. I did gather my thoughts beforehand and really focused. But then you just throw a boot at it." It was a bit like Kieren Fallon saying he just sits on a racehorse.
"It was hard on England," Zidane continued, "but then in a sense such drama is what makes this game beautiful. The great thing for me is that before a free-kick like that I don't feel any emotion. I know exactly what I have to do, I have scored in these situations before.
"I don't think about the occasion, I didn't think how long there was left when I took the penalty. I just go for it. And I practise a lot, I always practise.
"Maybe I did a few more than usual in the last two to three days because I wanted to get used to the ball. You have to practise, whoever you are." Zidane was captain on Sunday in Marcel Desailly's absence. Whether he felt any extra responsibility is debatable for such a phlegmatic character, but he swiftly answered the next question: did anyone else fancy it?
He said: "As soon as the foul was committed I knew I was the one who should take it." There was no discussion.
Sitting watching from the bench was Olivier Dacourt, recently departed from Leeds United, one of the multitude. "I had faith," Dacourt said of Zidane, "he has done it so many times in training.
"He did what Manchester United did to Bayern Munich in the Nou Camp." At the next table Bixente Lizarazu winced. He played for Bayern that night.
Both Lizarazu and Dacourt are fine players, but Zidane confirmed his different-league status on Sunday.
His authority stems from his brilliance on the pitch, but there must also be a great deal of respect for his personality, regardless of his nimble feet. Even in friendly-fire press conferences like yesterday's in the France base of Santo Tirso, he was curt with questions he considered either obvious or repetitive.
But he was never rude and he smiled when the Beckham question inevitably came up. Team-mates at Real Madrid, they were both captains in Lisbon. Afterwards they exchanged jerseys.
"Yes, we swapped shirts," Zidane said, "and we had a few quick words. But the best thing to do in these situations is to leave someone alone. People need time to themselves when they have lost a game in such a way."
Zidane was unprepared to relish his club-mate's misfortune, even if the noise from the France dressing room was sufficiently boisterous for several England players to mention it.
Zidane even said he did not wholly enjoy the game. England's tactics worked, he said, as did other French players, and Zidane was mildly concerned that other teams would copy England's ploy of defending in numbers to smother the France attack.
"It'll get worse as the tournament goes on," he said. "We need to get the ball to the wings more. We should have lured England out, we played into their hands."
Should Robert Pires be moved to the left wing, where he plays for Arsenal, he was asked. "Ask the manager," was the gruff reply. But he then elaborated - "obviously some things didn't work. Just because we won it doesn't mean we did everything right."
Speak for yourself, Zinedine.
