1-Welshman Ryan Giggs represented England at School boy level.
Photo from:World Soccer, October994
(Ryan Giggs celebrating after scoring vs. Albania, September 7, 1994, EC Qualifier Wales 2-Albania 0)
2-During the 1983-84 season, Barcelona’s Diego maradona was savagely fouled by Athletic Bilbao’s Andoni Goikoetchea, who was nicknamed “The Butcher of Bilbao”.
Maradona was essentially out injured for the better part of that season.
Initially Goikoetchea was suspended for 18 matches, however after multiple appeals the ban was reduced to a handful of matches.
This prompted Maradona to remark that one more appeal and he would have been suspended for having gotten injured.
Photo From: Mondial, December 1982
(Diego maradona and FC Nantes’ Maxiem Bossis during a friendly match)
Photo From: France Football, January 1, 1985, Issue 2021
(Andoni Goikoetchea, June 17, 1984, UEFA European Championships -Spain 1-Portugal 1)
3-Dutch and AC Milan Legend Marco van Basten officially retired in the summer of 1995. However, the last official match that he ever played was the Champions League Final on May 26, 1993 vs . France’s Olympique de Marseille, aged only 28.
He was considered as an active player though he was out injured for two full seasons, finally being forced to retire at the age of 30.
Photo From: World Soccer, April 1993
(Marco van Basten in his last season as a player, October 4, 1992-Fiorentina 3-AC Milan 7)
4- In Girondins de Bordeaux’s Round 35 match of the 1981-82 French season on April 16th with RC Lens, Bordeaux’s Yugoslav goalkeeper Dragan Pantelic was accused to have kicked one of the linesmen on the way to the dressing room at the conclusion of the match. He was susbsequently banned and suspended for one year. As a sign of protest, on May7th, 1982, for the last match of the season vs. Nantes, Bordeaux’s controversial president Claude Bez forced captain Alain Giresse to play as goalkeeper.
After an hour Libero Marius Tresor replaced Giresse “in goal”.
Needless to say Bordeaux lost 0-6.
Photo From:Mondial, August 1982
(Bordeaux Captain Alain Giresse, August 10, 1982-Bordeaux 3-Monaco 1)
Photo From: Mondial, November 1981
(Dragan Pantelic in action for Bordeaux)
5-During his three seasons at Juventus (1982-85),Polsih star Zbigniew Boniek was somewhat incosnistant for Italian Serie A League matches , but always seemed to perform better in European Cup matches.
This prompted Juventus and Fiat owner Gianni Agnelli to dub Boniek as “night time beauty”, in reference to the Euroepan Cup matches which were played in midweek in the evenings.
Photo From: Onze, June 1983
(Juventus’ Zbigniew Boniek in one off his rare off-days in European Competition vs. Hamburg’s Manfred Kaltz-May 25, 1983-Hamburg 1-Juventus 0)
8-Marco Tardelli (Juventus Football Club-Torino) [67 caps / 6 goals]
9-Paolo Rossi (Juventus Football Club-Torino) [32 caps / 13 goals]
10-Giancarlo Antognoni (Associazione Calcio Fiorentina-Firenze)[71 caps / 7 goals](15-Giuseppe Dossena (Torino Calcio 1906) [12 caps / 1 goals]56)
11-Roberto Bettega (Juventus Football Club-Torino) [42 caps / 19 goals](16-Alessandro Altobelli (Internazionale Football Club- Milano) [17 caps / 4 goals]69)
Coach: Enzo Bearzot
Booked: Collovati, Antognoni
Other Subs:
12-Ivano Bordon (Internazionale Football Club- Milano)
13-Pietro Vierchowod (Associazione Sportiva Roma)
14-Carlo Ancelotti (Associazione Sportiva Roma)
Team Captain: Dino Zoff
Official Kit Supplier/Designer: Le Coq Sportif
Uniform Colors: Blue Shirts, White Shorts and Blue Socks
Notes:
-Match number 315 for Romania and number 404 for Italy.
-This was only the ninth meeting between the nations.
-This was Romania’s first win ever vs. Italy.
- The previous match between the nations was the first leg of this European Championship qualifieron December 4, 1982 in Florence, that ended in a scoreless tie.
Italian players: Zoff, Gentile, Marini, Collovati, Conti, Tardelli, Rossi, Antognoni and Altobelli and Romania players: Rednic, Ungureanu, Iorgulescu, Stefanescu, Andone, Klein, Camataru, Augustin, Boloni and Balaci were the players still remaining from that match.
Italian players Bordon and Vierchowod again stayed on bench for that macth as well.
Romanians Moraru and Geolgau remained on the bench for that match.
- Italy’s previous win over Romania had been a 2-1 win in a friendly in Naples on February 16, 1980.
Italian players: Zoff, Bordon, Gentile, Cabrini, Collovati, Scirea, Tardelli, Rossi, Antognoni and Bettega and Romania players: Boloni, Stefanescu, Camataru and Balaci were the players still remaining from that match.
Fulvio Collovati scored one of Italy’s goals and Boloni again scored Romania’s goal.
- the previous match between the nations in the same stadium was a friendly on June 17, 1972 that ended in a 3-3 tie.
Italy’s Dino Zoff was the only remaining player from that match.
Romania’s manager Mircea Lucescu captained Romania in that match.
- The next match between the nations would be a 1-0 Friendly win for Romania on March 29, 1989.
Romania players: Rednic, Klein and Camataru were the players still remaining from that match.
Romania’s Ungureanu would remain on the bench for that match.
Photo : from Mondial, June 1983
-Romania qualified from this UEFA European Championship qualifying group. Besides Italy and Romania, the rest of the group consisted of Sweden, Czechoslovakia and Cyprus.
-This was Italy’s first loss in a official competitive match since a 1-3 loss onJune 3, 1981 vs. Denmark in a World Cup qualifier.
-Italy had not won a single match since the 1982 World Cup Final vs. West Germany on July 11, 1982 (3-1 win). They would not win a match until a friendly vs. Greece on October 5, 1983 (3-0 win).
-Italy’s Gabriele Oriali, Giuseppe Bergomi and Francesco Graziani were unavailable for this match. While Franco Causio had played his last match for Italy in the previous qualifier vs. Cyprus in February.
-This was Roberto Bettega’s first appearance for Italy since his injury in fall of 1981. It would also be his last.
- This was also Giampiero Marini’s last appearance for Italy.
-This was also Dino Zoff’s penultimate match for Italy. He would retire outright at the end of the season at age 41.
-Dino Zoff would manage Italy’s national team from 1998-2000. He managed Italy in a 2-0 win vs. Romania on June 24, 2000 in the 2000 UEFA European Championships. This would also be Italy’s first win over Romania since the friendly in 1980.
-Romanian goalkeeper Silviu Lung of Universitatea Craiova missed this match through injury.
-Romania’s Aurel Ticleanu was suspended for this match. He was sent off in the previous meeting between the nations in December of 1982.
-Romanian goalscorer Ladislau Boloni managed Romania’s national team in 2000-01. He managed Romania in two losses vs. Italy on October 7, 2000 in Milan (0-3 loss) and March 24, 2001 in Bucharest (0-2 loss).
-Ladislau Boloni scored off an indirect free kick.
-Marco Tardelli is the current assistant manager of Republic of Ireland’s national team.
-Dino Zoff and Marco Tardelli both managed Italy’s Olympic team in the 1988 and 2000 Olynmpics respectively.
-Italy’s only win in this qualifying group would be on its very last match vs. Cyprus on December 22, 1983 (3-1 win).
-On September 3,1989, Gaetano Scirea was killed in a car accident on a supervising mission in Poland for Juventus. Scirea (born May 25, 1953) was 36 years old.
- Romanian Michael Klein (born October 10, 1959) died of a heart attack on February 2, 1993 while training with his club, Germany’s Bayer Uerdingen. He was 33 years old.
-Italy manager Enzo Bearzot (born September 26, 1927) passed away on December 21, 2010 at the age of 83.
-Romania manager Lucescu managed a number of clubs in Italy: Pisa (1990-91), Brescia (1991-96), Reggiana (1996-87) and Internazionale FC Milano (1998-99).
-Lucescu’s son Razvan, has also managed the Romanian national team.
-Camataru scored a goal for Romania in the 11th minute that was disallowed. He was ruled to have pushed Zoff in the box.
-In the pre-match lineup Romania’s squad were wearing sweat shirts designed by Le Coq Sportif. However, they are clearly wearing Adidas uniforms.
1-During the 1988 Champions Cup Quarterfinal Series (March 16, 1988 Rangers 2-Steaua 1), between Scotland’s Rangers FC Glasgow and Romania’s Steaua Bucharest, Rangers’ player-manager Graeme Souness kicked Steaua’s Iosif Rotariu near the groin area with his studs.
As a sign of protest all Steaua players boycotted Romania’s national team match vs. Republic of Ireland on March 23, 1988.
2- During 1994/95 season, Real Madrid’s defender Rafael Alkorta started more matches for the Spanish National team than his club.
He started 8 matches for Spain and only 5 matches for Real Madrid the entire season.
He did make 4 substitute appearances for a total of 9 matches.
He had lost favor with new Real Madrid manager Jorge Valdano, however he had, Spain manager, Javier Clemente’s total confidence.
Likewise, Barcelona’s Julio Salinas was a Spain regular under Clemente while being mostly a substitute under Barcelona manager Johann Cruyff.
Photo : from World Soccer, November 1993
(Julio Salinas in action with Spain, Februray 24, 1993, World Cup Qualifier, Spain 5-Lithuania 0)
Photo from: Le Livre D'or du Football 1994, Author Gerard Ejnes
(Rafael Alkorta, June 17, 1994 World Cup Spain 2-South Korea 2)
3- During the summer of 1993, AC Milan’s long serving midfielder, Alberigo Evani had requested to transfer to Serie A club Sampdoria.
His reason for leaving was to get more regular playing time as to increase his chances for selection for the upcoming 1994 World Cup (for which he succeeded.)
Due to his long and loyal service, AC Milan owner, Silvio Berlusconi granted his request.
First he made sure that he would be receiving the same salary as he did in Milan and then he fixed the transfer fee at just $125.00.
Alberigo Evani (number 17, front row, second from left)
(Italian Lineup, June 18, 1994 World Cup Republic of Ireland 1-Italy 0)
4-When England played Australia in a friendly in February 2003, England manager, the Swede; Sven-Goran Eriksson substituted the entire 11 players at halftime.
Therefore England played literarily with a different team in each half.
In General Eriksson regularly substituted 7-8 players in friendly matches. As a result FIFA set a limit of 6 substitutes in friendly matches from 2004.
Photo From: France Football, Issue 3014, January 13, 2004
(February 12, 2003, England 1-Australia 3)
5-In spring of 1988, PSV Eindhoven player Ronald Koeman did an interview in which he praised club mate Hans Gillhaus’ foul on Bordeaux midfielder Jean Tigana, during the quarterfinals of Champions Cup in March 1988.
He stated that the foul was “worth gold” as it effectively took out one of the opponent’s key players.
Due to the public outrage of the interview, Koeman was suspended and fined.
Photo from:Onze, Hors Serie 19
(Jean Tigana, May 30, 1984 France 2-Scotland 0)
Photo From: Het Nederlands Elftal, De Histoire van Oranje, 1905-1989
(Ronald Koeman, November 16, 1983 European Championship Qualifier Holland 2-Spain 1)
