The match between Italy and Austria in a legendary football stadium
The ancient temple of Wembley has to tell about our football. Azzurro but also of clubs. The first Italian to step on the consecrated grass, Giovanni De Luna reminded us on the occasion of his recent death, was Giampiero Boniperti in October 1953. With great honor, given that he scored two goals wearing the uniform of the Rest of the world against the so-called masters of England: so-called, because within a month the great Hungary arrived to inflict a 6-3 on him which, before making an era, promptly suggested to the London newspapers in the evening to come out in mourning.
But even without reaching companies of that magnitude, we took a lot of satisfaction at Wembley. So much so that it is quick to review the disappointments. One with Bearzot’s Italy, beaten 2-0 in 1977 in the return match for the Argentina World Cup qualifiers but without compromising the lead in the group. The other, more difficult to swallow, in May 1992, which does not involve Italy but its current coach, then captain of Sampdoria.
That was, for Sampdoria, an unrepeatable final of the Champions Cup, played on par, if anything, with Barcelona: and sealed in extra time by a free-kick from Koeman, after a courageous match and a couple of occasions not transformed by Vialli. Better, much better had gone twenty-eight years earlier to Milan. It was there that he had begun his collection of Champions Cups, recovering the great Eusebio’s Benfica with two goals from Altafini. Collection-Milan and collection-Maldini at the same time, since it was father Cesare who raised it to the London sky as it would later be the turn of his son Paolo.
Returning to Italy, in the home of England, we find a 2-2 in 1959 with goals from Brighenti and Mariani who were the attacking couple of Rocco’s Padova, a 0-0 always in a friendly match in 1989, and two victories for 1-0, one more prestigious than the other. The second weighed more, because at stake was the qualification for the French World Cup in ’98 and the exonerated Sacchi had just taken over Cesarone Maldini.
One of those vigils to be signed on a par with the fountain pen of the party. Instead the Azzurri won, thanks to the most beautiful deep throw of Costacurta’s career and to the connection of Zola, who went sideways to his Chelsea fans where he was then playing. But the first, on November 14, 1973, despite being platonic, remains a milestone in Italy’s history because our national team had never beaten England at home.
For those who saw it live, against that classic London smoke background, the action of the goal does not need a review of Youtube. Rivera opens right for Chinaglia. The bison hunches in the shot and crosses hard, a little too much on the goalkeeper. But the ball is slimy, Shilton rejects short and Capello touches it in the goal. That night Zoff parried everything and played a great Rivera game. But it was legions of Italian-London waiters who had always been waiting for that moment to go mad, far more than the players on the pitch and us on the sofas at home.
Twenty years after the Hungarians, Italy also succeeded in desecrating the temple. Today Wembley is no longer that, but three goals from Pazzini in an Under 21 match in which Giorgio Chiellini was already there, inaugurated the new facility in 2007. And in a friendly three years ago that ended 1-1 Insigne has already taken the measurements of a goal. It is not the Olimpico. But not even hostile land. –