27 octobre 1999
Wembley London
ENG repost lien mort retrouvé
Absolument pas destiné à etre copié collé dans d'autres sites
C1.1999.2000.Ars.Fior.19991027.twb22.blogspot.com.mp4
3.43 Go https://1fichier.com/?0hds88zqd4s2ltfy67bj
Brian Clough loved humiliating goalkeepers. It was nothing personal, just business. “I was king of the castle,” he said. “I used to stick it through their bloody legs and say, ‘Now pick that out!’” The phrase “pick that out” is familiar to everyone who grew up with football as their BFF, whether they first heard it from a commentator like Clive Tyldesley, or Roy Race as he provided, via the medium of the speech bubble, a simultaneous commentary on his own inimitable heroism.
In Clough’s day the phrase was used for all types of goals, but in modern times it has been associated with one genre: the screamer. Pick that out. (There are a couple of popular four-word versions as well, but this is a family website). The phrase might have been invented for Gabriel Batistuta, such was his portfolio of visceral belters. He belonged to a dying breed of strikers: the true No9 who, as Gregg Bakowski discussed in his superb Golden Goal on Alan Shearer a fortnight ago, whacked the ball as if they meant to kill it. They certainly gave added meaning to the cliché of centre-forward as hitman.
Batigol, as he was nicknamed, was also a very subtle finisher, but in the mind’s eye he’ll always be ruthlessly roofing one from 25 yards. Everyone will have a favourite goal; a personal choice is his monstrous finish against Arsenal at Wembley in October 1999. It’s hard to recall a goal quite so emphatic. It was the last truly great goal at the old Wembley, and a reminder that Batistuta’s right boot had a sweet spot the size of Gibraltar. This was not just a Batigol; it was a Batigolazo.
The 1999-2000 season was the first in which more than two teams from one country were allowed in the Champions League. Italy, Spain and Germany had four teams each. England, sixth in the Uefa coefficient table, also behind France and the Netherlands, had three: Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea. Uefa introduced a second group stage for the first time, a development that lasted four years before they switched to an extra knock-out round. Valencia, who eventually lost 3-0 to Real Madrid in the final, played 19 games in the competition.The tournament was changing in other ways: we didn’t know it at the time, but the golden age of Serie A was over. There was an Italian team in nine of the 10 finals between 1989 and 1998, but Manchester United put out both Internazionale and Juventus on the way to the Treble in 1999 and for the next three seasons Serie A was like a shambling, weathered drunk shouting: “Don’t you know who I am?” Only one of the 24 Champions League quarter-finalists between 1999-2000 and 2001-02 were Italian, and that team, Lazio, were splattered 5-2 away to Valencia on their way out of the competition.
Fiorentina’s expectations were different to the other Italian sides. They had no real European reputation and as such were the rarest of things in late 90s football: the Italian underdog. This was their first appearance in the European Cup for 30 years, and only their third appearance in any European competition since they lost the final of the Uefa Cup to Juventus nine years earlier. In 1998-99 they were chucked out of the Uefa Cup when a fan threw a bomb at a linesman during a match against Grasshoppers.They qualified by finishing third in Serie A, 14 points behind the champions Milan. The league table never lies, but sometimes it can be economical with the truth: Fiorentina were serious contenders for their first title since 1969, and topped the table at the end of January. Then Batistuta suffered an injury that even Shakespeare might have deemed too cruel, and his forward partner Edmundo buggered off to Brazil for the Rio carnival without permission. Fiorentina won only three of the final 15 league games.
Arsenal had finished second in 1998-99, two points behind Manchester United in the greatest Premier League title race. They failed in the Champions League, knocked out in the group stage by an excellent Dynamo Kyiv. The commercial decision to play their home games at Wembley, which had double the capacity of Highbury, backfired: they drew at home to Kyiv and lost to an average Lens side. Although Arsenal’s Back Four had two superb campaigns in the Cup Winners’ Cup in the mid-90s, winning in 1994 and reaching the final in 1995, the Champions League was a step up in class.The chances of qualification increased in 1999-2000, with 16 rather than eight teams going through from the first group stage. But their group was a stinker: Barcelona, Fiorentina and the Swedish makeweights AIK. Admirable draws away to Fiorentina and Barcelona gave them a false sense of maturity, despite Patrick Vieira’s astonishing mistake in the Nou Camp. But in the return match at Wembley, Barcelona administered an intravenous injection of harsh reality with a 4-2 win. Arsenal played some of their best attacking football of the season, yet this was a familiar story in the 1990s: a talented but naive English side killed on the counter-attack by players with more nous and experience. Even Phillip Cocu’s blatant dive for the first goal seemed to sum up the difference in street wisdom. Barcelona had significantly less possession than Arsenal and scored four goals. Yes, they really were managed by Louis van Gaal.
La vita di un calciatore è fatta anche di momenti, di frazioni di secondo all’interno delle quali si racchiude un gesto, o una giocata, destinata a restare scolpita nella memoria di tutti. Gabriel Omar Batistuta e Francesco Toldo, di attimi che per i tifosi valgono quanto minuti interi, ne hanno vissuti moltissimi nel corso delle loro lunghe carriere, ma il destino ha voluto che la rete che meglio in assoluto fotografa quello che sono state le caratteristiche del primo e la parata che meglio racconta quali siano state le qualità del secondo, siano arrivate a pochi minuti di distanza l’una dall’altra e il tutto in una notte che a suo modo è passata alla storia: quella del 27 ottobre 1999. Per molti rappresenterà solo una data come le altre nella quale si sono giocate partite come tante altre, ma tantissimi tra coloro che tifano Fiorentina, non avranno difficoltà nel ricordare con chi erano, dove erano e cosa stavano facendo, mentre la loro squadra provava a farsi valere in uno stadio mitico e contro un avversario di caratura straordinaria: a Wembley contro l’ Arsenal. Per capire meglio il valore di una gara che poi si sarebbe guadagnata uno posto speciale nel libro di storia che racconta le vicende gigliate, bisogna tornare indietro di qualche mese. La Fiorentina era reduce da una stagione nella quale aveva accarezzato un sogno Scudetto sfumato anche per un infortunio occorso a Batistuta e per le bizze di Edmundo, ma il terzo posto maturato alla fine del campionato le era valso un pass per la Champions League, ovvero quella massima competizione continentale per club dalla quale mancava da circa venti anni.
ARSENAL (4-4-2): Seaman; Dixon, Keown, Adams, Winterburn; Parlour, Vieira, Petit, Overmars; Bergkamp, Kanu. Allenatore: Arsene Wenger.
FIORENTINA (3-4-1-2): Toldo; Pierini, Firicano, Repka; Di Livio, Rossitto, Cois, Heinrich; Rui Costa; Batistuta, Chiesa. Allenatore: Giovanni Trapattoni.
No comments:
Post a Comment
NO LINKS ALLOWED