In the last round of the group stage of the 2004 Euro Cup, Italy was not in a delicate position to the point of despair. The Azzurri were coming off two disappointing draws, against Denmarkin a poor match, and another against Swedenin which she was punished for a goal Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the final stretch of the confrontation. Still, the men of Giovanni Trapattoni they received last place – and eliminated – Bulgaria as their third commitment. All you had to do was win well and get your passport stamped for the knockout stage.
Several scenarios would put Nazionale in the next phase. If Sweden and Denmark had a winner, any victory for Italy would take them to second place in Group C of the Euros, held in Portugal. In the event of a draw, they would need to guarantee victory by a difference of two goals against a team that had no further chances of qualifying and had their target breached seven times in two games. Easy task? None of that.
The Italians’ main goal scorer, Christian Vieri, was not experiencing his best moment. At the Euros, he failed to score and was also the one who let Ibrahimovic’s shot cross the line in the final minutes of the duel against Sweden. The Inter center forward was exchanged for Bernardo Corradiwho was experiencing the best moment of his career at Lazio. Antonio Cassanoscorer of his country’s only goal at the Euros, remained among the starters, as Francesco Totti was still serving a suspension for spitting in the face of Christian Poulsen, from Denmark.
Draws in the first two games left Italy under pressure to face Bulgaria (Getty)
Trapattoni also made some changes, two of which were mandatory. Stefano Fiore took the place of Gennaro Gattuso, yellowed in Italy’s first two games at the Euros and, therefore, missing in the third. And, also due to suspension, he was forced to change Fabio Cannavaro by Marco Materazzi. In total, four changes compared to the team that started the tournament – and it didn’t work that well.
Bulgaria, technically led by a young Dimitar Bertatov and a good Martin Petrov, created the first chance in Guimarães. Taking risks from afar, the winger demanded the intervention of Gianluigi Buffon, who sent it wide and didn’t want to get involved with the wet ball, in the considerable rain that was falling in the north of Portugal. Next, it was Fiore’s turn to demand a save from Zdravko Zdravkov. The Bulgarian archer avoided the Lazio player’s volley and, on the rebound, Alessandro Del Piero he couldn’t get it inside with his left leg, taking paint off the post.
Fiore appeared well once again, in the 28th minute. With a precise throw, he left Corradi in a good position to finish inside the area, but the big man was stopped. And the game continued back and forth: in his next attack, once again Petrov found freedom on the left, hit hard and Buffon had to palm away for a corner.
Three minutes after this madness, Cassano had a great opportunity one-on-one with Zdravkov. However, as the ball was dripping, the talented striker had difficulty directing the shot, which went over the baseline, missed. Close to half-time, the chances stopped being wasted.
Materazzi committed a penalty in the first half and hurt Italy (Getty)
Practically at 45, Materazzi caught Berbatov inside the area and the attacker ended up on the ground. Referee Valentin Ivanov, from Russia, didn’t want to hear about the Italian complaints: the penalty was awarded for Bulgaria and the nightmare scenario was shaping up for the Azzurri. When charged, Petrov only displaced Buffon and sent Italy to the dressing rooms at a disadvantage.
Italy returned to the second stage hungry for a comeback. On your first descent on the left, Gianluca Zambrotta The ball rolled back and Cassano hit the crossbar in the 48th minute. The ball dripped over the line, goalkeeper Zdravkov got caught up in the ball and Simone Perrotta He was smart enough to send it into the back of the net almost with a kick on the rebound. There was still time to win and avoid a revenge against Bulgaria, who were still suffering from their defeat to the Azzurri in the semi-final of the 1994 World Cup, a decade earlier.
At that time, Sweden and Denmark were tied 1-1. A simple victory by two goals difference would be enough to defeat the Danes. However, if the duel between the Scandinavians ended 2-2, the Italians would need to score four times. The key to understanding the reasons for this was in the regulations.
If there were equality in goal difference, goals scored, and also parity in the direct confrontations of the 2004 Euro Cup groups, the tiebreaker would go to the points coefficient of the last two selection qualifiers, that is, for the 2002 World Cup and for the 2004 Euro, in which Denmark and Sweden had an advantage over Italy. So, the scenario of a draw by many goals from the other two teams in the Azzurri group was the worst possible.
Trapattoni left Vieri on the bench in the decisive game against Bulgaria, but had to put him on the field (AFP/Getty)
On the sodden pitch of the Dom Afonso Henriques Stadium, Cassano was really into the game – enough to score the four goals that might have been necessary. Receiving it in depth, in the 54th minute, Fantantonio lost the time for the shot and tried to shoot completely without an angle, and also without success. The crooked shot was a goal kick.
Trapattoni sent on Corradi in the 53rd minute to put on Vieri – practically six for half a dozen, but a half dozen with much more quality. In his first appearance, Bobo deflected a cross too high and Del Piero almost managed to complete the ball, finishing weakly and seeing the opposing defense clear the danger.
In the 66th minute, a goal for Italy. Actually goal for Denmark over Sweden. Jon Dahl Tomasson scored his second in the Scandinavian classic and, with that result, Nazionale only needed a simple victory to advance to the stage. Shortly after this information, another change on the Italian side: Perotta left to join the winger Massimo Oddo.
Vieri had the chance to fire a clean header, practically from the penalty spot, but he couldn’t direct it as he wanted. The ball went wide of the post, while Cassano got his hands on his head. It wasn’t Bobo’s Euro, definitely. After all, with 15 minutes left in the match, the number 9 also made a dangerous attempt, which went through the baseline. Shortly afterwards, Fantantonio suffered a strong challenge from Kiril Kotev on the edge of the penalty area and referee Ivanov did not notice anything. It was a clear penalty.
Cassano celebrated a goal against Bulgaria, but his joy only lasted a few seconds: Italy were eliminated (Getty)
Needing goals, the Azzurri intensified the pressure. Zambrotta took a long shot and Zdrakvov sent it wide. Buffon also had to work on a free kick taken with force by Berbatov and a counterattack pulled by Petrov, who finished face to face with the archer, exposed at that point in the confrontation. The Italians, on the other hand, were in danger from Nesta: the defender headed the ball and the Bulgarian archer, with the help of the crossbar, sent it back for a corner.
In the midst of this madness, in additions, a brilliant light screen Andrea Pirlo resulted in the outcome of the match. Oddo advanced towards the baseline, crossed low and the regista let the ball pass to Cassano, who shot the ball into the net. There were brief seconds of joy for Fantantonio: he ran away in ecstasy, thinking that the goal would qualify Italy for the quarter-finals, but, arriving in midfield, he received information from the Azzurro bench that Sweden had drawn with Denmark, minutes earlier. Thus, despite the victory, Nazionale was eliminated from Euro 2004 in the group stage.
The fact that the duel between Denmark and Sweden ended precisely 2-2 has negative repercussions in Italy to this day. Football lovers in the country understood that the two Scandinavian teams, with a long rivalry in the sport, decided to call a truce to play a “game of bedpans”, already announced by the demonstrations of several fans from the two Nordic nations – with flags and faces painted with the 2-2 that eliminated the Azzurri.
In Italy, the situation was responsible for popularizing the term “biscotto”, which became synonymous with fraud and never left the football vocabulary. But why biscuit? The expression is derived from equestrianism: when opponents of a team or the owners of a horse themselves intended to harm the animal’s performance and manipulate the result of a race, in order to obtain financial gains from this, a “christened” treat was offered. for the horse. In the end, with or without a backroom deal, the result was as bitter as possible for the Azzurri. And the difficult truth to digest is that the Nazionale was caught up in its own mistakes during that Euro.
Italy 2-1 Bulgaria
Italy: Buffon; Panucci, Nesta, Materazzi (Di Vaio), Zambrotta; Perrotta (Oddo), Pirlo, Fiore; Cassano, Del Piero; Corradi (Vieri). Coach: Giovanni Trapattoni. Bulgaria: Zdravkov; Borimirov, Zagorcic, Pazin (Kotev), Stoyanov; M. Petkov, Hristov (Dimitrov); Lazarov, Jankovic (Bojinov), M. Petrov; Berbatov. Technician: Plamen Markov. Goals: Perrotta (48′) and Cassano (90 + 4′); M. Petrov (45′) Referee: Valentin Ivanov (Russia) Local e data: Rei Dom Afonso Henriques stadium, Guimarães (Portugal), on June 22, 2004
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2024-06-22 19:15:00
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