[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]Calcio classic:[/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular] Juventus 9-1 Inter[/FONT]
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To this day the 9-1 game remains Juventus’ biggest win and Inter’s largest defeat in Serie A. [/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]
Antonio Labbate[/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]
looks back on a match that helped shape a footballing rivalry[/FONT]
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It wasn’t boys against men on that afternoon in Turin on June 10, 1961. It was youngsters taking on an Old Lady, Inter’s Primavera side versus Juventus’ first team – the newly crowned champions of Italy. It should have been an insignificant fixture, a re-arranged tie to consign another Serie A campaign to the annals of history, but the legend of that 9-1 game lives on even today.
Inter began the 1960-61 campaign with serious Scudetto ambitions. Owner Angelo Moratti, father of current incumbent Massimo, brought in Argentine tactician Helenio Herrera and they immediately made their intentions clear. Four wins from their first four games, in which they scored a staggering 18 goals, struck fear into the rest of the Division and a 3-1 home win against Juventus helped them to the Winter title.
Things were looking good for the Nerazzurri until an unexpected blip in form. Inter arrived in Turin for their April 16 tie on the back of four straight Serie A losses and four points behind a rejuvenated Bianconeri. Juve sold 61,000 tickets for the ‘Game of the Year’, as it was tagged, but more turned up – many more. So many that around 5,000 actually spilled on to the pitch, a couple even finding a seat on the Inter bench.
“The fans were just metres from the pitch, but there wasn’t any real danger to anyone,” recalled Inter player Aristide Guarneri. The referee, Carlo Gambarotta, didn’t agree. On 31 minutes and after Egidio Morbello had struck the upright for the visitors, the game was abandoned. Inter, as expected and defined by the rules, were awarded a 2-0 win 10 days later.
Juventus appealed against the decision even though they themselves had benefited from a similar incident at Bergamo a few years earlier. However, on July 3, the last day of the season, the appeal court sensationally ruled that the game would be replayed – thus virtually handing Juve their 12th Scudetto before the last 90 minutes of the campaign. “We heard the news just before our final game at Catania,” added Guarneri. “It devastated our morale and we lost the match 2-0. We felt like we had been taken for a ride.”
Moratti was furious. The fact that Juventus President Umberto Agnelli was also the head of the Italian Football Federation didn’t help. In protest, it was agreed between himself and coach Herrera that Inter would field their youth side in the re-arranged fixture to make a point. Among the youngsters was Sandro Mazzola, the son of Il Grande Torino’s Valentino.
Mazzola left his mark on the game by scoring a consolation penalty in the 9-1 destruction, but he very nearly didn’t make his debut at all that day. “I was informed on the Tuesday before the game that I would play, but there was a problem,” noted the Inter legend. “I had three exams to take on the Saturday and I was told at home that my studies always came first. I begged and cried, but it was no good. Fortunately, my headmaster understood my situation, he moved my exams to the morning and the club sent a car to pick me up outside of my school to take me to Turin.”
The game kicked off and some in the Juve camp considered taking it easy. “We were a bit embarrassed at the start,” noted Juventus captain Giampiero Boniperti. “We didn’t want to victimize them, but Omar Sivori was chasing the Golden Ball – which he was later awarded – and he was desperate to score as many as possible.” The Argentine-Italian grabbed six, including a hat-trick inside the first 17 minutes.
“His marker that day was Giuseppe Morosi,” added Mazzola. “He dreamt of returning to his village after annulling the threat of Sivori. That didn’t happen and Morosi admitted to me that he would find it hard to return home following the game.”
For many it was a phantom match, but for Boniperti it was significant for two reasons – the beginning of Mazzola’s vocation and the end of his own. After “baptising the career of Sandro”, the Juventus legend took off his boots and handed them to the club’s masseur, saying: “Here, take these and put them away. I won’t be needing them again.”[/FONT]