1996 (June 14) Czech Republic 2-Italy 1… by sp1873

It was, in hindsight, the beginning of the end. The experiment of putting a club coaching revolutionary in charge of La Nazionale was about to come to a juddering halt. Arrigo Sacchi’s approach ultimately failed to translate to international football.

In fairness, he had come within a whisker of winning a World Cup in the USA but that seemed to owe more to Roberto Baggio’s heroics than any great choral displays like his Milan side had produced. More often than not, the Azzurri struggled to replicate anything close to what he had achieved at the Rossoneri. Euro ‘96 in England would be the coach’s last stand and he made it in typically bold and uncompromising style.

It is hard to credit nowadays - when most of Italy’s recent managers have come from the club scene - just what a change of trend Sacchi’s appointment was. The last such appointment had been Fulvio Bernardini in the 1970s. After that Club Italia turned to Enzo Bearzot, a man groomed for the job during a period at the helm of the Under 23 side. He was followed by Azeglio Vicini, another to come through the ranks at the Italian federation.

To turn to football’s most famous former shoe salesman was an event of seismic proportions. Many experts predicted from the outset that the methods which had won trophies galore at the San Siro could not do the same with players who met just a few times a year. Could the intense, asphyxiating approach adopted to dominate European club football do the same in the international game?

From memory, I would say the answer was no. There were glimpses from time to time that the Sacchi style was working but, more often than not, the team seemed to lurch from one near disaster to another. It occasionally felt that good results were being achieved despite the manager rather than because of him.

The start of Italy’s first major qualification campaign under the former Milan man is a game which sticks in my mind for that very sensation. Playing at home to Switzerland they were two goals behind midway through the first half. Only late strikes from Roberto Baggio and Stefano Eranio spared their blushes. Watching with my family, we rounded on a pessimistic cousin to pepper him with punches of relief.

Little could we have suspected that this would be the order of the day for the Sacchi years. They got things on track to qualify for the World Cup but that campaign, too, was one which lived on a knife-edge of elimination for most of the tournament. Italy sneaked through the group after defeat by the Republic of Ireland. They played another Baggio get out of jail card to squeeze past Nigeria. A narrow win over Spain in the battle of Luis Enrique’s bloody nose was followed by a triumph over Bulgaria which is still viewed with contempt in that particular nation. And then, of course, there was failure on penalties to Brazil in the final.

That competition failed to win over the doubters. There had been flashes of flowing play but, by and large, the Azzurri relied on individual heroics to progress. The European Nations campaign would be make or break for Sacchi.

Qualification was again the victim of a sluggish start. A draw with Slovenia, victory over Estonia and home defeat by Croatia left Italy’s participation in the balance. A run of four wins on the trot was enough to steady the ship but not to ultimately end up on top of the group. That honour went to Croatia, the Azzurri had to be happy to make it to England as a best runner-up. They had seven goals from Gianfranco Zola to thank for getting there.

The group draw for the final stages, however, would be a testing one. Germany, Czech Republic and Russia had all won their respective qualification campaigns. And yet Italy got off to a flyer at Anfield.

It was then Lazio striker Gigi Casiraghi who hit the right notes with a double to down the Russians. A team boasting the likes of Zola, Alessandro Del Piero and Demetrio Albertini was pretty pleasing on the eye. Maybe, just maybe, the manager had finally got the right mix. We really should have known better.

Sacchi, in his wisdom, decided to overhaul a winning team for the crucial clash with the Czech Republic. While the defence remained unchanged with Roberto Mussi, Luigi Apolloni, Billy Costacurta and skipper Paolo Maldini forming a solid back line, the midfield and attack was dismantled. Only Albertini kept his place with, most controversially, goal hero Casiraghi being benched. Dino Baggio, Diego Fuser, Enrico Chiesa, Roberto Donadoni and Fabrizio Ravanelli were the five new faces in the starting line-up.

If it was supposed to be a show of squad strength and astute resource management it backfired horribly. Within five minutes the Azzurri were behind to a Pavel Nedved strike and they struggled to recover. Chiesa brought the sides level but near the half-hour mark disaster struck. Apolloni was sent off and soon after Radek Bejbl restored the Czech lead. All the time, Casiraghi kicked his heels on the bench.

Image via Bundesliga Classic

He was eventually thrown into the fray near the hour mark to replace Ravanelli and, with 12 minutes to play, Zola took Chiesa’s place. But it was not enough to turn the game around and escape the feeling that Italy had shot themselves in the foot. From being in a glorious position to qualify, they now needed to beat Germany to progress. It felt as if Sacchi’s faith in his own ability had undermined any chance of winning the tournament.

Try as they might, they could not break down the eventual Euro ‘96 winners with a saved Zola penalty the closest they came to getting the win they needed. Even when Germany went down to 10 men they could not convert their chances. But the underlying emotion among the tifosi was that the damage had been done against the Czech Republic five days earlier.

Win that game and the Azzurri might have played out a bloodless draw with Germany which would have allowed both teams to progress. Instead, Sacchi’s tinkering was blamed for crushing any confidence produced by their opening victory. They were packing their bags at their Cheshire base and heading home with dreams of Wembley destroyed. It was little consolation that their group conquerors - the Czech Republic and Germany - went on to meet again in the final.

And that meddling piece of management pretty much brought the curtain down on their coach too. Sacchi took charge of a couple of World Cup qualifiers and a friendly defeat to Bosnia Herzegovina before the call of a return to Milan proved to much to resist. It would not bring back the glory days of his first spell.

As for the Azzurri, they went back to more tried and tested coaching processes to find his successor. Cesare Maldini had been cutting his teeth with the Under 21s for a good while before getting the top job. He would be the last, however, of the real “federation men” to get the post. Since then they have always gone for people with recent club management experience. Few of them, however, have been brave enough to try the kind of drastic team selection which ended in disaster against the Czech Republic some 17 years ago.

Image via Inter Leaning

I think I just took it for granted back then. If there was an Under 21 European Championship, Italy would be contenders. Now I realise that I was living through probably the greatest ever spell in the history of the Azzurrini.

It did not seem to matter who the manager was - although Cesare Maldini was the king - we always managed to produce the goods. There was a combination of class and character among our young players which even the golden generations of other countries could not match. It brought trophies galore.

Look back at the list of winners and you will see what I mean. Between 1990 and 2004, the boys in blue won five out of the seven European Under 21 titles up for grabs. While La Nazionale was going through a relatively fallow period between World Cup triumphs of 1982 and 2006, we could console ourselves that the future was bright. Many of the players who won at youth level would go on to have glorious full international careers too.

In my mind, anyway, all of the victories were epic. Just like their senior counterparts, the Little Blues never seemed to do things easily. They always put your emotions through the wringer before bringing you out the other side in delight.

The success story started in Sweden. It was the last time the final of the competition would be a two-legged affair before it moved to a new format. And, guess what, that 1992 triumph was one which left the viewer feeling well and truly exhausted.

Much of the competition story had been about Scandinavia. In the group stages Italy had to avenge a hefty 6-0 defeat by Norway in order to progress. Parma hitman Alessandro Melli was the hero of that victory which helped his team make it to the knockout stages. Then, in the semi-finals, Denmark were swept aside to set up the home and away clash with Sweden to decide the overall winners.

Italy were at home in the first leg and goals from the tournament’s Golden Player - ex-Juve and Fiorentina man Renato Buso - and Torino midfielder Gianluca Sordo gave them a 2-0 triumph. It would be just enough for them to hold on for victory after a 1-0 defeat in Sweden. They held out for more than a half-hour after the home team’s goal to ensure their first triumph in the tournament against a side including the likes of Patrick Andersson and Thomas Brolin.

Two years later, the final was even more dramatic. Played out in Montpellier, the Azzurrini faced the Portuguese golden boys of Luis Figo, Rui Costa and more. But with a defence including the likes of Fabio Cannavaro and Christian Panucci along with Francesco Toldo in goal, the Italians stood firm. Then up popped an unlikely hero.

The tournament rules allowed for the Golden Goal and after a goalless 90 minutes, the stage was set for a nervous period of extra-time. It would be Atalanta midfielder Pierluigi Orlandoni - a player once compared with Paul Gascoigne due to his chubby face and dribbling skills - who seized his moment. Having been thrown into the match as a substitute for Pippo Inzaghi, he produced the matchwinning moment. It took a little while for it to actually sink in that the game was over and the trophy had been won.

In 1996, it would take penalties to clinch the trophy against another star-studded side in the form of Spain. Playing in Barcelona, Francesco Totti opened the scoring only for Raul to cancel out the Italian lead. It was a tight tussle and everything looked stacked against the Azzurini who had Nicola Amoruso red carded after just 36 minutes. They would be reduced to nine men when Raffaele Ametrano was sent off but still they held on to take the game to spot-kicks.

That was a chance for Milan-bound goalkeeper Angelo Pagotto to become the hero of the night. Preferred to a youthful Gigi Buffon, he saw off shots from Raul and Ivan De La Pena to put the Azzurri in pole position. It was up to Domenico Morfeo (an Atalanta player like Orlandoni two years earlier) to convert the winning spot-kick. The Azzurrini had completed a famous hat-trick of consecutive victories.

Four years on and Andrea Pirlo would be the hero. He struck two goals to defeat the Czech Republic in Bratislava. Among the other stars of that Italy vintage were Rino Gattuso, Christian Abbiati and Cristiano Zanetti. But it would be the current Juve man - still a year away from the move to Milan which would truly ignite his career - who would be the match winner with his set-piece skills.

He gave the Azzurrini the lead with a 42nd minute penalty but Tomas Dosek equalised just after half time. A free-kick nine minutes from time gave Pirlo his chance and he did not miss it. A trademark finish ensured the title was going Italy’s way once more.

The most recent success was also the most emphatic. In 2004 in Bochum in Germany, Serbia and Montenegro were swept aside 3-0 in the final. Daniele De Rossi, Cesare Bovo and Alberto Gilardino were the goalscorers that day. Two of them would go on, of course, to be World Cup winners in the same country a couple of years later. Their grounding with the Azzurrini had served them well.

Since then, however, they have failed to make a final. They made a semi-final in 2009, losing out to eventual winners Germany, and now they are back in the competition again. Does this crop have the talent to live up to its famous predecessors? We will soon find out.

It would all end in heartache, of course, but it was pretty to dream. After the emotional all-you-can-eat buffets of Italia ‘90 and USA ‘94, there had been a much more plain meal for the passions at France ‘98. But, a year down the line, it felt like the Azzurri were starting to cook up something special again.

We could not know then how Euro 2000 in Holland and Belgium would end. If we had known the agony of Golden Goal defeat which lay in store in the final of that competition might we have asked to be put out of our misery sooner? Personally, I doubt it. Part of the pleasure of following football for me is the journey, even if the destination is not the one we hoped for. How foolish the ultimate outcome can sometimes make your dreams appear. But, on the other hand, what glorious results have been achieved when all the omens gave no grounds for optimism.

Such philosophical musings, however, were not part of the pre-match preparations in June 1999 - the last time the Azzurri played in Bologna before this week’s clash with San Marino. Dino Zoff’s side had got off to a flyer in a qualifying group including the likes of Switzerland, Denmark and Belarus. A victory over a stuttering Wales side would just about get the qualification job completed.

The visitors had an imbalanced look to their team. Going forward they could boast Dean Saunders, Mark Hughes, Gary Speed, Craig Bellamy and Ryan Giggs. At the back, however, things looked a lot more creaky. Italy would be quick to exploit those weaknesses.

Image via calciopro.com

The game would be just seven minutes old when Bobo Vieri rose unopposed at a Diego Fuser corner to nod the ball past Paul Jones. It was the vital deadlock breaker which settled any nerves the home team might be feeling. “That was very easy for Vieri,” said Fabio Capello in the commentary box. “He was all alone, the opposition had not marked him at all.” The tifosi in the Renato Dall’Ara could begin to relax.

They would be able to don their slippers and loungewear before the half-time whistle blew. Parma midfielder Fuser was the provider once again as his long through ball picked out Pippo Inzaghi. With a typical piece of persistence and poaching instinct, he resisted one challenge to prod home a goal and double the Italian lead.

By this point, the team had really got into its stride and a third goal on the 40 minute mark was a thing of beauty. Milan and Italy legend Paolo Maldini seemed to break free from his defensive bonds to bound forward with a pace and power the Welsh defence could do nothing about. He played a delightful one-two with Vieri before bursting into the box and clean through on goal. The striker duly rolled the ball into his path and Maldini passed the ball into the net for what would be the last of his seven international goals.

The game was all but over as a contest and Zoff took the opportunity to rest two of his three scorers to that point. Vincenzo Montella replaced Vieri, Enrico Chiesa took Inzaghi’s place and, later, Fuser made way for the Little Soldier, Angelo Di Livio. Wales, for their part, threw John Hartson into the fray but it was not enough to turn the tide of a game which was already flowing against them.

Instead, there would be time for one more exquisite Italian finish. A quickly taken free-kick in the midfield by Montella was passed to Di Livio who in turn teed up Chiesa. The hitman - on his way from Parma to Fiorentina that summer - did not hesitate to crack a thundering shot towards the goal. It traced a perfect route past the goalkeeper in the kind of spectacular finish which was a trademark for the man whose name translates as Henry Church.

The result all but clinched qualification as chasing Denmark and Switzerland could never quite get within touching distance. Italy could even afford the luxury of defeat in Naples by the Danes before a point against Belarus in Minsk clinched their place at the top of the group. Runners-up Denmark also qualified for the finals via the play-offs.

The tournament proper was an epic affair. Three wins out of three in the group stages were followed by a win over Romania and a nerve-wracking penalties victory over host nation Holland. The final with France looked to be going Italy’s way thanks to a Marco Del Vecchio goal before a late Sylvain Wiltord strike took it to extra time where David Trezeguet hit the winning Golden Goal. It was a sorry end to the story and Zoff would soon quit his post too. Still, there had been a number of highlights along the way and some fine football. And few performances were as convincing as the one his team produced in Bologna almost 14 years ago.

For me, there will never be another Roberto Baggio. The end of the 1989/90 season was the most painful I can ever remember. The boy we had loved and nurtured back to full fitness, the footballer the rest of Italy envied, the symbol of hope for a brighter future for Fiorentina was leaving. And his destination was unmentionable.

No transfer deal has ever hurt so much. I can remember Giancarlo Antognoni leaving, but that was to go to Switzerland for an end of career swansong. And, in future, Gabriel Batistuta would move to Roma, but not before he had given us the best years of his footballing life. But the Divin Codino was a superstar in a struggling side with countless seasons of top class play left to give. But we were losing him just the same.

It was the harshest lesson in the realities of the game. The Viola were definitely a selling club at a time when Serie A’s big guns were carnivorous consumers of other teams’ talents. Looking back, it was a no-brainer really. Nonetheless, it hurt like hell.

The light had gone out on our brightest star, the heir to Antognoni’s crown. Some took to the streets in protest to vent their anger. I took to my room to brood over what life would be like without a player I had invested with such emotional importance.

Over time, my anguish diminished, I guess. As Baggio moved from team to team, it always felt like he was in search of the love he had once enjoyed in Florence. I think he found it again in the provinces, but never really at Italy’s big three. Perhaps I am delusional in that regard.

That’s all a rather long preamble to say that if Stevan Jovetic leaves Fiorentina in the summer it will not hurt anything like as much. The world of football has changed immensely and the thought of keeping him for his whole career has never seriously crossed my mind. From the moment he lit up the Champions League a few years ago it was more of a question of “when” rather than “if” he would move elsewhere.

Serious injury and then the personal intervention of Andrea Della Valle put that on hold. But now, aged 23, he is at the prime time to look to clinch a deal to a bigger club with greater European clout. Few would grudge him that, some believe his mind has been drifting away from Florence for some time. The constant transfer rumours have, like sea lapping against stones, worn many of us down.

His contribution over about 100 Serie A appearances has been impressive in both good and bad times. About a goal every three games, a steady stream of assists and countless man-of-the-match displays would be his legacy. This season, perhaps, there was the feeling he was trying too hard at times to be a matchwinner on his own. At a club with more superstars, I guess, that pressure might be lifted.

Will he go? I think the answer is almost certainly yes. The club will hold out for the cash it is entitled to for his services but, as long as a bidder comes up with the appropriate sum, I don’t think they can hold him any longer. Thankfully, from a Viola point of view, he leaves a team which looks like it will not be plunged into despair by his departure.

Where will he go? That, of course, is a little more thorny. The main suitors seemed to be Arsenal, maybe Manchester City and the same team which took Baggio away. Then Chelsea intervened, apparently a first target for Jose Mourinho. There is no doubt Fiorentina would prefer to sell him outside Italy but, if the price is right, they may not have that choice. If he must go to THAT place, they must push for the best deal possible. They showed last summer that they can be pretty astute when it comes to spending their cash.

What type of player do they get? An enormous talent with the potential to explode on the international scene. He can dribble, finish and set up goals. He does, however, tend to pick up a number of minor knocks during a season, so he is likely to miss a few games. There was also a feeling in more recent outings that maybe defenders had got to know his game a little better. Just the same, he remained a huge talent.

This term he has played as one of a pair of strikers in a 3-5-2 and the focal point of a 4-3-3 and acquitted himself well in both positions. Previously, he also featured in a 4-2-3-1, sometimes as the front man but more generally behind the main striker or cutting in from the left. He is versatile enough to play in those roles and more, but he is definitely at his best when he is withing striking distance of the goal - ideally with just one defender and the goalkeeper to beat.

That, to me, is his trademark finish. Finding just enough space to spin a ball between a despairing centre-back and a leaping netminder. His speed of thought to calculate the type of shot required to find the net is second to none. Any buyer can look forward to seeing a few of those.

It will be sad, of course, to see him go. He is the same age Baggio was when he left the club and his contribution has been similar both in terms of goals and appearances (the Divin Codino was, in truth, a bit more prolific). But will it hurt as much as when Roby left? Personally speaking, no. Times have changed, maybe, and so have I. I would rather keep Jojo but, equally, if he is desperate to move on then there is really no sense in keeping him a prisoner at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. It would be a matter of regret, of course, if he decides to move away but, this time around, there will probably be no tears.

A football match means more when you know someone who supports the opposing team. It gives a little extra importance to the outcome when a friend or family members is pulling for exactly the opposite outcome to yourself. Back in the mid-1990s, games between Pescara and Fiorentina felt like a personal derby match for me.

The reason was a simple twist of fate. I had been writing for Football Italia magazine for a while when they decided to bring out a book as a guide to the season ahead. I was selected - along with TV expert Ray Della Pietra - to co-author its pages. His heart was at the Stadio Adriatico, mine at the Artemio Franchi.

But Calcio can be a cruel mistress. There was talk of bringing out something similar every season but it never happened - leaving that guide to the 1993/94 campaign as the only edition. Frozen in time forever was a season where neither Fiorentina nor Pescara featured in the top flight. The pair of them got relegated the season before - replaced by two from Reggiana, Cremonese, Piacenza and Lecce, take your pick.

We were, however, dedicated in our efforts nonetheless. Virgin Publishing had set a tight deadline to get things done and there were plenty of lengthy phone-calls between myself and Ray to compare notes, discuss progress and generally moan and groan about the editorial process. It was hard work, I remember, but it was good fun too.

We were childish in the pranks we tried to play on our editor. His crime, in our eyes, was that he knew less about football than we did and, at the time, we found that unforgivable. It culminated in trying to get some Italian version of his name into the Serie A all-time scorers list. To his credit, he spotted our ruse.

I think it was fair to say my co-author was more intense about these things than I was. My memory is that he was a real perfectionist and when others fell short of his standards he found it infuriating. I was - and still am - a bit more relaxed about these things and inclined to go with the flow. But how I envied his fiery passion when he was in full flight.

We got the book done - me in Scotland, Ray in London - and it came out in time for the new campaign. I thought being a published author would change my life but, if it did, it wasn’t in the way I had expected. Fame and fortune did not beckon, even if a copy of a volume with your own name on the side is still a matter of some pride. Later, a Japanese version would be published which I still possess - the only words I can read on it are Giancarlo Rinaldi and Ray Della Pietra.

Time passed, of course, and the future editions of the book did not materialise. Channel 4 eventually dropped Italian football and I lost track of Ray. Nonetheless, whenever our teams cross swords, he is still the first person I think of.

Back then, we were both feeling a bit sorry for ourselves. A season in Serie B was a chastening experience for me but he was much more used to lower division football. Whenever I was feeling hard done by for supporting the Viola, a word with Ray usually made me feel quite lucky. Fiorentina are nobody’s idea of habitual winners, but compared with Pescara they seemed like Barcelona.

My team, of course, bounced back in style, winning the division thanks, in part, to a 16-goal haul from a young Argentinian called Gabriel Batistuta who stayed faithful to the club despite their relegation. Ray was not so lucky, Pescara struggled all season and only survived by the skin of their teeth. They did, however, get the better of Fiorentina with a draw and a win in their two second division encounters. They turned out to be a bit of a bogey team.

In Serie A, it has been a different story. In 11 meetings to date there have been eight Viola victories, two draws and just one Pescara triumph - the one which came in Florence in January this year. That might be the result which keeps the Tuscan side out of the Champions League even if it was not enough to save the Dolphins from relegation. When they meet again this weekend I imagine that, somewhere, Ray Della Pietra will be sitting down to watch the game and hope to do the double over Vincenzo Montella’s team. And if they do he might, perhaps, think for a moment about his old Fiorentina-following co-writer.

Image via freedigitalphotos.net

The guttural roar rattling the toilet wall leaves no room for doubt. It erupts, explodes and then gradually dissipates into prolonged applause. An announcement - also muffled by bricks and mortar - is greeted by a second wave of cheers. And then, THAT look, from son to father.

“We’ve missed a goal, haven’t we Dad?”

There is a familiar emotional as well as aural pattern to proceedings. Initially, always, there is anger and frustration at missing seeing your team score. Then, sometimes, a coming to terms with the fact that the match situation meant the strike was of little consequence. And, finally, a wry smile and a collective paternal and filial rolling of the eyes as if to say: “How many is that we’ve missed this season?”.

Nobody provides this information in the guide to taking your boy or girl to the football. It is a most grave omission. For the pre-match or half-time administration of a Fruit Shoot - or other child-acceptable beverage - always results in a bladder-related emergency at some point later in the match. It is virtually guaranteed to be a key moment in the clash.

An away cup strike in Edinburgh, a deadlock-breaker at Palmerston, the fifth in a goal rampage - I have missed them all this season. There have been a couple of narrow escapes too - ahead of a cup final penalty shoot-out and just as the league trophy presentation was about to begin. For the former we went for the agonising “I think I can hold on” option, for the latter we produced a pit-stop the Ferrari crew would have been proud of.

The people around us in the crowd always have a chuckle as we shuffle out of our seats. Some have taken to encouraging us to make a trip to the pie stand or the toilets if goals are proving hard to come by. A souvenir DVD of the incidents we have missed has also been suggested.

I have also tried to cut down any liquid consumption in the build-up and during the match. No matter how much my parched-mouth son protests, I refuse to buckle to his pleas for a thirst-quenching mouthful to drink. Offers of a carton of juice from friends and family are waved away like a farmer trying to scare crows away from his crops.

And yet, on reflection, the rewards outweigh the risks. Never before have I had such gaps in my intake of the action during a football season and yet I cannot remember enjoying a season so much. I can still feel soppy, sentimental tears welling in my eyes when I think of the words my son told me at the end of this, his first year following our local team. “I like watching football,” he told me, before adding, “but only with you, Dad.”

That makes missing a goal or two seem like a price well worth paying. There will come a time, probably, when his father’s company will be the last thing he seeks on a Saturday afternoon. So, in the meantime, I’m going to savour even those strikes I only heard and never saw.

Maybe there was a full moon over the San Siro on Sunday night. Some kind of collective madness seemed to sweep across both Milan and Roma and their respective supporters. On a weekend which had been full of mellow and melancholy farewells, they gave it a frenetic and frustrating finale.

Whatever the reason, the bozos were out in force inside the stadium. Giallorossi supporters were warned for racist jeers towards Mario Balotelli which later saw the match suspended. Then the home fans got in on the act by flashing a laser pen in the eyes of Bodgan Lobont. Clearly bringing at least half a brain is not yet an entrance requirement at Serie A matches.

Read more at Football Italia

Few fans present in the Stadio Luigi Ferraris had seen such a result before. It had been more than three decades since their favourites had managed to win a home Serie A match against Inter. But, in May 1991, Genoa ended that long-running hoodoo in swashbuckling style.

It was a case of the upstart side against the established elite. Just a couple of seasons earlier, Giovanni Trapattoni’s Inter side with its colony of German internationals (they already had Lothar Matthaus and Andy Brehme and would add Jurgen Klinsmann later) had won the Scudetto with a record-breaking points total. At the same time, the boys from the Marassi had been scrapping their way out of Serie B.

By 1991, however, there was a case for saying Serie A was about as wide open as it has ever been. Maradona’s Napoli were reigning champions, Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan had been conquering Europe, Sampdoria were a major force with Vialli and Mancini. Sides like Parma and Torino, too, had serious European ambitions. It was a cut-throat time for Calcio.

Inter had given it their best shot to have a crack at the title, standing toe-to-toe with Samp for much of the season. But the round of matches before their trip to Genoa had seen them lose 2-0 to Doria, effectively ending their Scudetto aspirations. They also had the distraction of an upcoming return leg of their UEFA Cup final with Roma. With Osvaldo Bagnoli’s men determined to grab a European place of their own, there was plenty of incentive for victory. Few could have predicted just how emphatic it would turn out to be.

Trapattoni was unable or unwilling to risk a full strength team for the match. Stalwart defender Beppe Bergomi, aerial target man Aldo Serena and German full-back Andy Brehme were all missing for the match. And things would only get worse as the game progressed.

A knock to Beppe Baresi forced him to leave the fray too and be replaced by Paolo Stringara. Still the visitors’ defence held strong for most of the first half, with most of the danger to Walter Zenga’s goal coming from free-kicks by lethal Brazilian Branco. Eventually, however, they were undone by two of Genoa’s midfield motor-men.

Gennaro Ruotolo picked up the ball and ran on to a return pass from Mario Bortolazzi to slice open the Inter back line. He produced a sweet, low finish to break the deadlock in the 38th minute. It was a vital turn of events which the boys in blue and black never looked like turning round.

The home side looked the more hungry and it was to be little-and-large strike duo of Czech Tomas Skuhravy and Uruguayan Pato Aguilera who completed the rout. In the 76th minute it was a drifting cross from the South American which his European counterpart looped over Zenga with a perfect header. Then, late in the game, it was Skuhravy who went flying in the penalty box with Aguilera duly converting the spot kick.

Post-match, Trapattoni looked disappointed but not too downhearted. He knew his club had other priorities for the season and were playing a side which had more reason to push for the points.

“We were up against an opponent who gave us nothing,” he said. “We had some key players missing, even if that’s no excuse. But Bergomi, Serena and Brehme are not the kind of players you can replace easily and some of the players coming in were not in top condition. By the end, a few of our players looked tired too.”

“The level of motivation was different,” agreed Genoa’s towering skipper Gianluca Signorini. “For us, playing Inter is always an extra boost and our concentration was total. We played a perfect game today.” It is sad to think that a little more than a decade after celebrating such a great season, their influential captain would succumb to Lou Gehrig’s disease aged just 42.

Genoa Coach Bagnoli reckoned he had got his tactics about right. “We knew Inter were strong - although without Serena they lost something at free-kicks,” he said. “But with Fausto Pizzi in the team we thought they would try to outmanoeuvre us.

“But the moment we got the ball we had to break quickly,” he added. “We could not allow them to break with the kind of players they have like Nicola Berti, Lothar Matthaus and the likes. We were very concentrated, we were in good form and we got the first goal which helped us out too.”

The result would help to clinch historic UEFA Cup qualification for Genoa at the end of the season while Inter would go into the same competition as holders after seeing off Roma. The Nerazzurri’s defence of that crown would not go particularly well with early elimination to Boavista. The Rossoblu, however, went all the way to the semi-final before missing out to Ajax who would also conquer Torino in the final.

As for the jinx-breaking victory over Inter, it did not really herald a golden age at home to the Milanese giants for the Grifone. They have won a couple more clashes - in 1993 and 1994 - but since then they have suffered four defeats and a draw in the fixture. If past history is anything to go by, they might have to wait until 2027 for another home win to come along.

Read more classic Serie A games in 20 Great Italian Games.

“When an Italian tells me it’s pasta on the plate, I check under the sauce to make sure. They are the inventors of the smokescreen.”

“They come out with the ‘English are so strong, we’re terrible in the air, we can’t do this, we can’t do that’. Then they beat you 3-0.”

Thus spake Sir Alex Ferguson in his assessment of Italian football. It is a judgement based on experience of taking on Serie A sides numerous times during his reign at Old Trafford. They may appear, at first glance, to be a bit insulting. But if you push the sauce to one side - to pinch his own analogy - there is surely a Parmesan-like sprinkling of respect.

That’s because it took him some time to get a handle on how to beat sides from the peninsula. Now that his managerial career is drawing to a close, the statistics show he eventually got to grips with the challenge. But, at least at the outset, it was definitely a struggle.

It was Marcello Lippi’s Juventus who gave him his first harsh lessons in how Serie A sides operate. Between a cigar and a glass of red wine or two the silver-haired tactician from Viareggio beat the Red Devils home and away in the group stage of the 1996/97 Champions League. The following year the English side won 3-2 at Old Trafford against the Bianconeri but lost the group game in Italy thanks to that man who was “born offside”, Pippo Inzaghi.

It would be the 1998/99 edition which would really see the Scotsman graduate with honours in terms of seeing off Italian opponents. Inter were eliminated 3-1 on aggregate at the quarter final stage before his old adversary, La Vecchia Signora, stood on his path to the final. That semi-final produced two matches which underlined the feeling - which proved to be true - that United’s name was on the cup.

A 1-1 draw in Manchester - courtesy of current Juve manager Antonio Conte and the eternal Ryan Giggs - gave the Bianconeri the advantage. When Inzaghi struck twice in the opening dozen minutes of the return match it should have been game over. Instead, Roy Keane, Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole turned the tie on its head. From that point on, any psychological advantage Serie A sides had previously enjoyed had been entirely banished.

Fiorentina enjoyed a famous win over the English side in 1999 thanks to Gabriel Batistuta and Abel Balbo but were vanquished 3-1 at Old Trafford after a Batigol beauty had given the Viola the lead. But home and away wins over Juve in 2003 underlined just how much the club had progressed. At least until a new adversary emerged.

Another bon viveur, Carlo Ancelotti, proved a tough nut to crack with his Milan side. Hernan Crespo gave the Rossoneri home and away wins over Sir Alex’s side in the Champions League in 2005. Things were more expansive a couple of years later when the Milanese giants overturned a 3-2 deficit in the semi-final first leg with a 3-0 triumph at the San Siro courtesy of Kaka, Clarence Seedorf and Alberto Gilardino. Prior to that game, however, the Manchester side had dished out their heaviest ever hammering to an Italian side with the 7-1 destruction of Roma.

As the fortunes of Serie A have slumped in Europe, Manchester United have stayed strong. They defeated and drew with Roma in the 2007/08 Champions League group games and then beat them home and away in the quarter-finals. A year later, Inter were their second round victims after a goalless draw in Milan and 2-0 home victory.

The last chapter in the Fergie versus the Italians story came three years ago and it emphasised how far he had come. Milan were defeated 3-2 on their own turf and then dismantled 4-0 at Old Trafford. If he had once had trouble getting at his pasta, he could now pretty much dine on the Italian delicacy whenever he pleased.

To read more about classic Italian matches download 20 Great Italian Games via Amazon.