If it were possible, Slovan Bratislava would sell out several such stadiums that evening.
The famous AC Milan is against the Czechoslovak champion. Fighters in striped red and black jerseys, you name it, it’s a star. You could not find a better team in the world at that time.
Antonioli, Tassotti, Maldini, Albertini, Costacurta, Baresi, Lentini, Donadoni, Van Basten, Boban, Papin. The team, which a year later swept Barcelona 4-0 in the final of the Champions League, won’t let anyone else speak in the domestic competition for the next three seasons and won’t recognize a conqueror in 58 duels in a row.
AC Milan, which presented itself in Bratislava four months after Slovan became the Czechoslovak champion, was the first super club in the history of modern football.
After 32 years, both clubs will have a rehearsal tonight. You can watch the match ONLINE at sportweb.sk.
Spirit guides the hand
In October 1992, we saw the team at its peak. Conducted by Fabio Capella. However, the glorious era began six years before, when the beloved and hated Silvio Berlusconi took over the club.
He got hold of it at the worst time. It was a period of falls, scandals and financial uncertainty. Simply the environment in which Berlusconi moved like a fish in water all his life.
The business genius liked to shock. For example, when AC quickly hired Arrigo Sacchi, about whom not much was known before, on the coaching bench. But he gave him the freedom to completely reshape football. Let’s calmly talk about the revolution.
Sacchi’s concept was “collective intelligence”. He demanded from his team “eleven active players at every moment of the match. Both in defense and attack.’
By the way, in training, his team used to play entire matches without the ball. He just told the players where the imaginary ball was right now so they could react to it and take a position.
His credo was: “The only way to achieve success is to bring in players who will submit to the team. You can’t achieve anything by yourself, and if you do, it never lasts long. I often quote what Michelangelo said: ‘The Spirit guides the hand’.”
A football philosopher without a playing background, that was Arrigo Sacchi. Former shoe salesman. When Berlusconi chose him, the Italian sports press went crazy, convinced that only a top player can be a top coach.
“I never realized that to be a jockey you have to be a horse first,” was Sacchi’s wry reply.
He turned the traditionally defensive Milan into a football amphibian. He won the title in his first season and subsequently the European Champions Cup in 1989 and 1990.
Tomas Stupala Tomáš Stupala and the legendary Franco Barresi at the Tehelno field.
The core was the Dutch trio Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten – only the last of them started in Bratislava, and the first in Milan.
However, the soul of the team was – unlike today – understandably Italian.
Craftsman without a smile
He brought the famous AC Franco Baresi, one of the greatest legends in the history of Milan, to the Tehelné field. A symbol of football loyalty, a man who represented the “Rossoneri” with distinction for twenty whole seasons, fifteen of them with the captain’s armband.
An absolute leader on and off the field, he had a perfect positional sense that allowed him to command a defense like few others in history.
In 1989, he finished second in the Ballon d’Or poll, Marco Van Basten won. To this day, Baresi is regarded as one of the best players who failed to achieve that individual recognition.
“He was a complete unit for me. A cold-blooded and dedicated craftsman who never smiled,” Czech football expert František Csaplár spoke of the Italian giant years ago.
Baresi won everything with Milan: Serie A six times, four Italian Super Cups, three Champions Leagues, three European Super Cups and two Intercontinental Cups.
Simply a Milanese legend through and through. “I was caught offside fifteen times. Baresi always shouted something and I was already there,” recalls Jaroslav Timko, a former Slovan striker, about Milan’s precise defense.
Paolo Maldini grew alongside Baresi, and later perhaps outgrew him. According to many, the best defender of all time. The ambidextrous footballer, the son of Cesare Maldini, another Milan legend, went through all the youth teams and stayed in Milan until the end of his incredible career.
Tireless and unbeatable in the air, with enormous technical qualities, speed, power and, last but not least, charisma. He played 902 games for the club, won the league title seven times and enjoyed the Champions League five times.
Baresi and Maldini, along with Tassotti and Costacurto, formed the strongest defensive line in the world, and according to experts, no other team even came close.
Nevertheless, it was not a purely defensive, but an absolutely complex team that defended itself with attacks. At the same time, this represented a change in the football paradigm.
Behind the Milan system was an idea that mercilessly questioned deeply rooted Italian traditions of defensive caution and minimalism.
The magazine “World Soccer” chose Milan as the best football team of all time in its poll. It was the only club to reach this ranking alongside legendary national teams – Brazil 1970, Hungary 1954 and Holland 1974.
“And to talk about him in the same breath together with Pelé’s “Selecao”, the Hungarian “Aranycsapat” and Cruyff’s total football is a sign of the highest quality,” wrote the magazine.
Stop. Impassable
Belasí, in the composition Vencel – Stúpala, Glonek, Chvíla, Kinder – Klinovský, Dubovský, Krištofík, Pecko – Timko and Gostič, played an equal team with the Italian giant. They lost 0:1. Two weeks later in Milan, however, there was nothing to talk about.
“We only realized at San Siro that Capello’s AC is impassable for us. We have seen what great football is. There we found out that we are still quite far from him,” said Slovan captain Tomáš Stúpala in an interview with Športweb about the 0:4 loss.
The strongest Czechoslovak team ran into the world’s best. Practically at its peak. AC Milan at the time had victories at home.
“When we won the title or the Champions League, Berlusconi rewarded us generously. But once we were second, we got nothing. Not even a lira. He was very clear about it and it was beautiful,” recalls Van Basten.
The great Slovan went out with a model of football perfection…
Source: sportweb.pravda.sk
