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The great Milan emerged from the mist

2020-08-13T14:31:04.896Z


Sacchi's team won the title in 1989 after being saved in the second round when the game they lost to Red Star in Belgrade was postponed.


This is how history is written. Sacchi's Milan miraculously escaped alive from the fog of Belgrade one cold winter night in 1988 and ended up becoming a period team. As such, that particular squad can be considered that fell in love with Europe with its brilliant and efficient style of play and that won two consecutive European Cups (1989 and 1990) with their corresponding European and Intercontinental Super Cups.

Almost all the clubs that have marked their territory in the continental competition par excellence have had their fetish day. Cruyff's Barça would not have achieved Wembley 92 glory without Bakero's goal at Kairserslautern. Guardiola's Barça would not have reached the ecstasy of the sextete without Andrés Iniesta's goal at Stamford Bridge, and, without going any further, Zidane's Real Madrid of the three consecutive Champions League were about to stay in their first steps after losing ( 2-0) against Wolfsburg in a horrible first leg, if not for Cristiano Ronaldo's three goals in the second leg at the Bernabéu.

This is how history is written. And that of Sacchi's Milan began to take shape in that winter of 88. He had won the scudetto the previous season (87-88) after nine dry seasons and with two titles in his record (1963 and 1969) he returned to the Cup from Europe after the same years of absence. In the second round he was the Red Star of Belgrade. It was already the Milan of the three Dutch: Rijkaard, the last to arrive, Gullit and Van Basten and a group of Italian players among whom Franco Baresi acted as leader and captain.

The first leg is played at San Siro and ends with a draw (1-1), goals from Stojkovic and Virdis. That Red Star was shown as a team with a trade that exhibited the talent of a couple of young players: Savicevic and Stojkovic. The first of them later made a career under the command of Fabio Capello, Sacchi's replacement, and was the great architect of the 94 European Cup in Athens when Milan swept Cruyff's Barça (4-0).

The little Maracana turns into the hell that always boasted the afternoon of November 9. About 100,000 fans, 6,000 of them tifosi Milanese. The first half ends with a goalless draw. In the resumption, Savicevic overtakes the locals. The fog begins to descend on the pitch. The German referee, Pauly, at the request of one of his linemen, expels the Italian striker Virdis for attacking an opponent. Only his assistant was able to see the action. The stadium was in darkness. In minute 56 the referee decides to suspend the game. It was not visible to five meters. The UEFA regulations at the time stated that the match must be repeated the next day in its entirety and the result of the suspended match was not worth. Statistically it was as if it did not exist. Of course, Milan could not count on the expelled Virdis, or Ancelotti, who had seen a yellow and had to serve a penalty game.

Thursday. 15.00 hours. The seats of the previous day are worth, but the stands do not present the same aspect. Less than half. Milan show their superiority and go ahead with a goal from Van Basten. Sacchi, who had confessed that Gullit had traveled with the team but was not there to play, started. The referee does not see Vasilejvic's own goal and Stojkovic equalizes. It was then that Donadoni, after colliding with an opponent, fell down on the grass. There are moments of terror. Maldini, the most impressed, perhaps by his youth, does not stop screaming that his partner is dead. He cries inconsolably. The Red Star masseur reacts quickly. He finally manages to stick out his tongue at the Milan player and to give him artificial respiration he breaks his jaw. It has saved his life. Donadoni is taken to a hospital still with seizures.

The game continues and ends in a penalty shoot-out. Giovanni Galli becomes the rossonero hero . Stops two pitches. To Savicevic and Mrkla. Milan go to the quarterfinals. Eliminate Werder Bremen and in the semifinals devastate Real Madrid. After the draw at the Bernabéu (1-1), they were beaten at San Siro (5-0) on a tremendous night, a prelude to the Camp Nou final against Steaua (4-0). The Belgrade mist was present in the heads of all the champions. Without that haze that forced the meeting to be suspended, it would have possibly been eliminated and the doors of glory would never have been opened for that team that was beginning its continental reign.

The botch of Marseille.

Milan repeated the following season. Revalidated at the Vienna Prater against Benfica with a solitary goal from Rijkaard. Nobody seems capable then of stopping Sacchi's men in Europe. New defense of the title. Season 90-91. In the second round, the rival is Olympique de Marseille. At San Siro the match ends in a draw (1-1). The same result as three years before against Red Star. Back in the old Velodrome. The French go ahead with a goal from Waddle (75 ′). The double champion is eliminated. The minutes fly by and suddenly two of the four towers of the stadium go out. The stadium is dimmed. After the first moments of uncertainty, Galliani, Berlusconi's right-hand man, the club's gray brain, comes down to the pitch and asks his players to go to the locker room. Look for the suspension of the game or, as a lesser evil, its repetition. Like in Belgrade. Part of the lighting returns and the referee decides that it is possible to continue playing and orders play to resume in the local area. One, two, three, four times. Milan retires. And it puts its machinery in motion. He wants to win in the offices.

UEFA is not influenced and seeing that its appeal is not going to prosper, President Silvio Berlusconi himself apologizes publicly and accepts what happened. On March 28, the highest European football body sanctioned Milan with one year "for acute unsportsmanlike spirit" and justified that up to four times the referee wanted to resume the match. Punishment that was ratified by the Appeal Committee. Galliani was suspended for two years. He wanted to resign, but Berlusconi did not let him.

There, in the twilight of the Velodrome in Marseille, the Milan de Sacchi, born under the fog of the Maracana in Belgrade, is exhausted.


Source: elparis

All sports articles on 2020-08-13

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