"You don't stop Zidane. You have to try and control him and if you want to limit his effect you need a bit of luck too," Gattuso was quoted as saying by Calcio Italia magazine on Friday.

“You need to give him as little thinking time as possible. If players like him are at 100 per cent then they won’t allow you to see the ball," he added.

Gattuso, known for his aggressive style of play, will be aiming to decrease Zidane's influence on the pitch when three-times world champions Italy take on France, who are looking for a second World Cup glory, in the tournament's final on Sunday.

The AC Milan midfielder said that Italy don't use the man-marking system but they will do their best to frustrate Zidane in his last game before retirement.

"We don’t play in a way which includes man-to-man marking. It’s something which we don’t do anymore in Italy," he said.

"I've played against Zidane before, with Milan, but I've never man-marked him. Obviously, if he is in my zone then it will be more my job to take care of him than Andrea Pirlo's, but it's not man-marking," he added.