"The only thing I can say to Zidane is thank you, and I think everyone should say the same as he was a great man and not only France will miss him but the whole world," Henry told Sky Sports News on Monday.

"We were better in the second half and extra time, we're very disappointed, but who wins the final game wins the cup," added Henry, who was forced to leave the pitch with a foot injury.

After putting France ahead in the seventh minute from the spot kick, the tournament's best player Zinedine Zidane was shown red for head-butting Marco Materazzi in the chest just ten minutes before the end of extra time.

Henry believes that something happened behind the scenes and caused Zidane, who was playing his final game as a professional footballer, to lose his cool.

"I don't really know what happened between Materazzi and him, I'm sure Materazzi told him something that provoked him.

Defender William Gallas agreed with Henry and said that Zizou's sending off was no way the reason behind the loss.

"Even after Zidane's dismissal we were better than the Italians," Gallas was quoted as saying by French leading sports paper L'Equipe.

"They could only threat us from corner kicks, we wanted to win the game before the penalties and everyone saw that we were the better team."

France looked better in the second-half and over the extra time especially with David Trezeguet coming on for Florent Malouda in the 100th minute but they still couldn't score.

And Trezeguet, who rattled his penalty-kick off the bar, felt no better.

"I placed my penalty really well but then, everyone should take his responsibilities, we dominated most of the game and it's a shame we lost," Trezeguet said.

"We should accept the defeat and for Zidane, we all have to thank him for what he has done to France in the past 10 years."