Ed's World explained:
Several minutes before the actual incident, Buffon was seen having gentle words with Zidane and patting his shoulder as if to calm him down. Whether it was a resolution to a previous disagreement or related to the Materazzi incident we don’t know, but what was obvious then was that Zidane was on edge with something the Italians had done and Buffon, his Juventus teammate from the time Zidane was there 5 years ago, was trying to put the fires out.Even though, Zidane is honoured with Golden Ball Award for being selected this year's World Cup's Best Player!
Then, a few minutes later, as Zidane and Materazzi jostled for a cross in the penalty area, Materazzi was clearly holding on to Zidane from behind and while that annoyed Zidane, his reaction was still controlled. Words were exchanged - banter between opponents and nothing more, it seemed. Zidane jogged past Materazzi towards the half-way line (as the cross had never come and the ball had been cleared) and Materazzi continued speaking.
Then came the fatal moment - Zidane spun around, walked a few steps towards Materazzi and and headbutted him in the chest with full force. You have to see the replays to believe it - Zidane’s strength is such that Materrazi, who is no lightweight himself, went down like a sack. I doubt that he milked it, but only because Zidane is such a strong guy and because the move looked like a flash of rage.
Few people saw it as almost everyone was following the action on the ball. Buffon was there, and so was Cannavaro (I think), who called the ref to the incident. As even the linesman hadn’t seen what had happened, there seemed to be no way to confirm what Buffon, Gattuso and Materazzi were saying. The fourth official then looked at video replays of the incident and after seeing the headbutt in full flow, informed the ref who had no hesitation in giving Zidane a straight red card.
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