With European competition returning to our screens this week, it is poignant to consider that the Italian footballer who most excelled in this context will no longer be with us. In January, the footballing world remembered the life of Gianluca Vialli. It was striking how many of those memories included the inter-continental sporting honours collected over the course of his 29 years as a professional footballer. His footballing legacy can perhaps be best seen in his remarkable record in European competitions – it is no hyperbole to claim that he was Italy’s greatest European footballer.
As The Knowledge has recently revealed, Vialli is in an elite group of players (and the only striker) who have won the Cup Winner’s Cup (1990 and 1998), UEFA Cup (1993) and the UEFA Champions League (1996). He’s the only player in the history of football to have won and lost finals in all three of these competitions. His campaigns were littered with extraordinary feats of athleticism, considerate and skilful play for teammates but also a determination and steeliness to win. Below, a quartet of finals from each of the European competitions Vialli contested is explored to tell the story of Gianluca, a footballer addicted to lifting trophies.
1990 Cup Winners’ Cup Final. Sampdoria 2 Anderlecht 0
Conquering adversity was a specialism of Vialli’s football career and the 1990 Cup Winners’ Cup final came a year on from the disappointment of Sampdoria losing to Cruyff’s Barcelona in the previous season’s final. Sufficiently recovered from seeing Gary Lineker play on the right wing for the Catalan giants, a 26 year old Vialli dominated the 1989/90 edition, finishing as top scorer with seven goals, two of which came in this, his greatest performance in a European final.
Sampdoria took to the pitch in their iconic blue shirts and the 90 minutes of the final could be most politely described as a game of tactical chess between the Genovese’s coaching master Vujadin Boškov and the Dutch, former Ajax manager of Anderlecht, Aad de Mos.
Within this battle of footballing wits, it was clear that there were two world class talents – the goal twins (Gemelli del Gol) of Vialli and Roberto Mancini. In the first half they emerged: Vialli released his strike partner with a looped through ball, Mancini’s exquisite first touch took him past a defender but his low strike passed just wide. Vialli’s movement and pressing kept producing space for Mancini who was unlucky to only hit the post with another first half strike.
Boškov changed the game with his substitutions, bringing on the 24 year old Attilio Lombardo to add more danger out wide and look to stretch Anderlecht. The bald headed Lombardo, not looking a day over 60, caused problems from the get-go and as the final went into extra time he sparked the first goal. On the right touchline, he scampered past Charly Musonda and got the ball to Mancini in the penalty area, the resulting tackle fell to Fausto Salsano whose long range strike cannoned off the post. Anderlecht goalkeeper Filip De Wilde struggled to hold the ball and Vialli juggled the ball off him with his feet and fired the ball into the empty net. A goal made by brains and determination.
A second goal came later with the same protagonists. Lombardo’s dribbling skill took him into the Anderlecht half, a pass to Solsano resulted in Mancini being released on the right wing. His almost telepathic relationship with his friend and teammate Vialli led to a cross landing precisely on the curly haired head of the Sampdoria number 9 and into the net. 2 – 0 and it was all over. Vialli lifted his first European trophy with his footballing soulmate Mancini – a year later they would be Italian champions.
1993 UEFA Cup Final. Juventus 6 Dortmund 1 (on agg.)
Vialli moved to Juventus in 1992 for a then world record fee of £12.5 million and this transfer created the tantalising prospect of a strike partnership with Roberto Baggio. Once the 1992/93 season got under way, this prospect didn’t quite live up to expectation in Serie A – Juve finished 4th and Vialli scored just six times. In European competition, however, Baggio and Vialli lit up the 1993 UEFA Cup with eleven goals between them.
Playing a European final against Dortmund at the Westfalenstadion was as intimidating as it sounds. The stadium was a sea of yellow, the pitch hard to see through the fog of flares and the German side went 1 – 0 up through Michael Rummenigge. Juve were on the ropes but were awarded a free kick thirty yards out and the German playmaker Andreas Moller stepped up to take it. What followed was a intricately executed three-man short passing move scored by Dino Baggio. Vialli played a vital, if nuanced part, coming out of the penalty area to receive the initial pass and displacing the marking of the Dortmund side, giving Baggio the extra few yards of space he needed to score the goal.
Although seen as a classic Number 9, Vialli had great technical ability and this was fully on display for Juventus’ second goal. A Giancarlo Marocchi inspired counter attack released Vialli on the left wing, his footwork proved too much for Uwe Grauer and his inch perfect cross left Roberto Baggio with no choice but to score from close range. Juventus sealed the leg with a third, Moller, Vialli and Baggio all combinating in the build up – Vialli again displayed his great footballing intelligence to move out from the penalty area to the left flank in the build up to create space for the move to be finished.
Juventus would win the leg at home 3 – 0 with Dino Baggio and Moller scoring the goals. Away from the headlines, however, the clear thinking and unsung play of Vialli in the early stages of the hostile first leg away from home enabled the final to become a procession for Juventus.
1995 UEFA Cup Final. Parma 2 Juventus 1 (on agg.)
Vialli won the UEFA Cup with Juventus in 1993 but the double winning Juventus team of 1994/95 was arguably even more talented. The addition of Fabrizio Ravanelli meant a front three of Roberto Baggio and Vialli and there was talent right the way through the team. Although this Juve team would not lift the UEFA Cup trophy, Vialli’s individual contribution to the second leg of this two legged final lives long in the hearts of Juventus fans.
Parma brought their own supply of footballing gold dust, Gianfranco Zola and Faustino Asprilla were up front together in one of the greatest strike partnerships of the 1990’s. They had won the first leg 1 – 0 with Dino Baggio scoring after a delightfully executing Zola assist. The return leg was at a packed San Siro and tifosi from both sides contributed to one of the best atmospheres experienced on the peninsula during this period. ,
Aside from the incredible story of Parma’s continued success, the main memory of this final comes from Gianluca Vialli’s left foot. 33 minutes into the first half, Moreno Toricelli launched a fifty yard long ball forward from right back, Vialli, playing on the shoulder of Parma right back Antonio Benarrivo, managed to pass behind him. The ball bounced once and Vialli put what seemed like the entire might and focus of his body into hitting the ball on the half-volley. The ball rocketed at incredible pace into the top right hand corner of the goal sending the Juve fans into raptures.
The wonder strike, despite restoring parity in the game, was not enough, with Dino Baggio getting another goal early in the second half. The day belonged to Parma but Vialli’s volley entered the pantheon of great goals by Italian strikers.
1996 UEFA Champions League Final. Ajax 1 Juventus 1p
The lowest moment of Vialli’s European journey at club level happened at Wembley in 1992 when Sampdoria lost the European Cup final, 1-0 to Barcelona. He was uncharacteristically profligate in the match and Johan Cruyff’s ‘dream team’ set up to play the Ajax way were crowned European champions. Four years later Vialli could be forgiven for fearing the footballing gods had another Dutch tragedy in store for him as Louis van Gaal’s reigning Champions League victors challenged Juventus for the biggest prize in club football.
The two teams faced off at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome and Juventus went ahead through Ravanelli via a defensive mix up. As the game got tighter following Ajax’s equaliser, Juventus captain Vialli was involved in most of the scant scoring opportunities in the first 90 minutes. The Italian press had widely reported that this was going to be Vialli’s last game for Juventus, but this was in danger of turning into a final chapter to forget for the striker who had won almost every major trophy with them.
As the game entered extra time, Vialli’s presence became more subtle. His ability to occupy multiple markers created space for Del Piero’s two excellent chances but perhaps even more important was his body language and communication during set pieces. The captain’s armband means less in Italy than in the UK but Vialli was very much a leader in the dying embers of the final.
In her tribute to the passing of Vialli, Nicky Bandini quoted his and Mancini’s thought that football is “A sport, a game. And you play games with your friends.” As the horrifying prospect of exiting on penalties or, perhaps even worse, a late Ajax winner from a set piece loomed on the horizon, Vialli was a true friend to his teammates. His team would win on penalties and, in yet another example of sporting redemption, Gianluca Vialli lifted the Champions League trophy and completed his set of European trophies.
