FULL TIME: Italy 3-2 Brazil
That’s it! Italy have put Brazil out of the World Cup. Their players are almost too exhausted to celebrate. They have given so much. Average at best in this tournament before this game, they’ve elevated themselves into the pantheon with a display that was staunch yet not a little sassy too.
Brazil, meanwhile... oh Brazil! The most popular team on the planet won’t be lifting the trophy, but they do leave Spain with one title: the best team never to win the World Cup. A few older folk in Hungary, Holland and, yes, back in Brazil will be breathing a sigh of relief for the first time in years.
And while it won’t make them feel any better at the moment, this brilliant Brazil side can take succour from one thing: they’ve just played their part in the greatest World Cup game ever played.
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90+1 min Eder has to move one of the advertising hoardings to make room to take the corner. He swings it right under the crossbar where Zoff, under considerable pressure, punches clear decisively. The old boy has been immense!
90 min Brazil now playing a freestyle 1-4-5 formation. They win another corner. This is like nothing you will ever see. Falcao, in an inside-right position, plays the ball into Leandro, who lofts a return pass into the area. Falcao’s flying volley is blocked by Graziani at the expense of a corner.
89 min: WHAT A SAVE BY ZOFF! They so nearly did equalise and put Italy out of the tournament. Eder was fouled on the left wing and curled the free-kick beyond the far post, where Oscar came round the back of a crowd of players to thump a header towards goal. Zoff plunged to his left to stop the ball and then, as it slipped from his grasp, grabbed it right on the line with Brazil appealing it had gone over. It hadn’t, and that might just be it for Brazil.
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88 min: Italy have a goal wrongly disallowed!!! That should have been the end of Brazil’s World Cup. The tireless Antognoni started and finished the move, launching another counter-attack before putting Rossi free on the right-wing. Rossi ran into the area and slipped the ball back to Oriali, who played an angled pass across the area for Antognoni to ram home from six yards.
The flag went straight up, but replays show he was being played onside - probably by Junior and certainly by Oscar. That’s a terrible decision, and one we’ll never hear the end of if Brazil equalise in the last couple of minutes.
86 min A good couple of minutes for Italy, with Brazil struggling to get the ball. The tension is ridiculous.
84 min Eder plays a through ball towards Junior. Zoff charges outside his box to get there first and then completely shanks his clearance. Luckily for him it goes to Oriali. Moments later Isidoro’s cross flicks off the head of Gentile towards Socrates, whose goalbound half-volley is magnificently blocked on the six-yard line by Conti!
83 min Scirea goes on a ridiculous surge upfield for Italy and almost finds Rossi. Where’s he going?! There’s no catenaccio here, no bolting of the door; everyone is caught up in the mood of an astonishing match.
81 min For the first time in the tournament, Brazil are on the desperate side of urgent. The Samba beats are going at 78 rpm rather than the usual 45.
80 min: Socrates has a goal disallowed for offside! This game is almost too dramatic to function. Socrates ran on to Leandro’s through pass and went round Zoff – who admittedly had stopped playing after hearing the whistle – to score. There are no real complaints from Brazil. It’s hard to be certain if it was the right decision as the only replay is from a poor angle, although it does suggest he was probably offside.
79 min Oriali has his name taken for a foul on Eder. He has won that battle emphatically today. Eder strikes the resulting free-kick just wide from 35 yards, although Zoff had it covered.
78 min Brazil have already scored four equalisers in this tournament. Can they find yet another one to reach the semi-finals?
76 min Tardelli, who injured himself in the course of the greatest miskick of his life, has been replaced by Giampiero Marini of Internazionale.
GOALLLLLLLLL!!!! Italy 3-2 Brazil (Rossi 75)
This is unbelievable! Italy are in front again and Rossi has a hat-trick! They had been on their knees since Brazil’s equaliser and then they scored out of nothing.
It started when Antognoni’s deep cross was headed behind a little needlessly by Cerezo. Conti drove the corner towards the edge of the area, where Bergomi, Zico and Socrates all went up for the header. It came off Socrates’ head and dropped to Tardelli, who mishit a volley through a crowd of players that was turned in from four yards by Rossi.
Junior appealed for offside – but he was the man playing Rossi onside, because he was slow to come off the near post. It’s the first World Cup hat-trick by an Italian since 1934. Before this game he’d been hopeless! If Italy win, this astonishing turnaround will go straight into folklore.
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74 min Junior finds the marauding Cerezo down the left, and his clipped cross is claimed at the second attempt by Zoff with Isidoro about to pounce.
72 min Zico teases Gentile on the right corner of the box, the mouse toying with the cat, before going past him and then Scirea. Bergomi comes across to make a vital clearance. Italy are hanging on desperately.
71 min Italy have been ragged since the goal, and Brazil could put them away with another quick one here. The hitherto faultless teenager Bergomi loses the ball to Eder, and for a second Brazil have two-on-one. But Eder tries to go alone and is superbly tackled by the last man Scirea, who then blocks Falcao’s follow-up shot.
70 min Isidoro is on, for Serginho as expected. It looks like Socrates is going to play a bit further forwards. Never mind 2-7-1; Brazil are now playing 2-8-0!
CLASSIC GOAL!! Italy 2-2 Brazil (Falcao 68)
The best player in the 1982 World Cup may well have put Brazil into the semi-finals with an outstanding goal. Junior swaggered infield from the left, ignoring a challenge from Conti before stabbing an outside-of-the-foot pass to Falcao, just outside the box to the right of centre.
With Cerezo’s long swerving run on the outside distracting Tardelli, Scirea and Cabrini, Falcao had time to run into the D and spank a left-footed shot into the net. Zoff dived to his right but he was beaten for pace as much as anything.
It’s yet another beautiful goal from Brazil. Falcao bounces towards the bench, into the arms of his team-mates. That was sheer delightful football.
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67 min The right-winger Paolo Isidoro is about to come on for Brazil, presumably for Serginho, who has been better without the ball than with it.
66 min Talking of age… “Some players play on into their late 30s or so, and it’s easy to forget how old they are,” says Matt Dony. “Zoff isn’t like that. He wears his 40 years fairly clearly. I can’t imagine the effort involved in playing elite level sport at that kind of age. Although, to be fair, I’m not yet 1.”
65 min We call referees effs and cees often enough, so we should point out that the little Israeli Abraham Klein has been magnificent today. His performance is even more impressive given the 90-degree heat and Klein’s age: he’s 48!
64 min We may have said this before, but Brazil’s movement off the ball and awareness of opportunities for one-twos is awesome.
63 min Brazil have so many men forward, it’s ridiculous. Junior – the effing left back, their Kenny Sansom, their Frank Gray – is the main midfield conductor at the moment. Cerezo, on the edge of a packed area, plays the ball back to Junior and runs in behind Tardelli for the return. Junior lifts a golf shot over the top, but it’s a fraction too firm and Cerezo, sticking out his telescopic leg, can only volley into the side netting at the near post from a tight angle. Zoff had it covered.
62 min Graziani, who with his straggly hair and slightly clumsy gait has the air of a hapless movie bankrobber, is fouled by Oscar down the left. He has been a superb foil for Rossi in this game and has taken up some excellent positions on the counter-attack.
60 min Tardelli launches another dangerous counter-attack which eventually comes to nothing. Meanwhile here’s an urgent APB: WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING, STOP IT, THIS IS ONE OF THE GREAT WORLD CUP MATCHES. IF YOU ARE AT WORK, BUGGER WORK, GET UP, GO HOME OR TO THE NEAREST PUB OR RADIO RENTALS WINDOW IF THEY’RE STILL OPEN, THIS IS WORTH GETTING SACKED FOR.
59 min A better free-kick from Eder is very well held by Zoff. It was straight at him but dipped nastily at pace just in front of him, a very difficult ball to hold, especially as Serginho and Zico were on the sniff for a rebound.
58 min: BRAZIL SHOULD BE OUT OF THE WORLD CUP! Both sides could have scored in the space of a minute! First Brazil. Junior’s chipped ball into the area was not far enough in front of Cerezo for him to go for goal, so he cushioned a header towards Serginho. He challenged for the ball with Bergomi and, as it broke loose, improvised a backheel that was saved by the legs of Zoff.
Within 19 seconds, Rossi missed an unbelievable chance to complete his hat-trick and kill Brazil off. Graziani swerved away from Falcao down the left and, with defenders drawn towards him, crossed low towards Rossi at the far post. Rossi had an entire postal district to himself, eight yards from goal. Somehow he sliced his shot wide.
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56 min This match is pulsating and entirely magnificent.
55 min: Zoff makes a brilliant save from Cerezo! That chance came out of nothing. Cerezo set off an imperious, leggy run from midfield, into the space vacated by Serginho’s clever off-the-ball run, while Zico protected the ball near the centre circle. Then Zico suddenly played a wonderful through pass which took four Italian players out of the game.
Zoff, sensing the danger, dragged his 40-year-old limbs kicking and screaming to the edge of his area at pace and blocked Cerezo’s first-time shot. Then delivered an impassioned bollocking to his defence.
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54 min Leandro meanders forward from right-back and has a pop from 25 yards. It was a well struck, rising drive but straight at Zoff, who patted it down comfortably.
53 min Zico, tired of watching Eder clank free-kicks into the wall, has a go himself and curls a decent effort over the bar. Brazil have 37 minutes to score again or they are out.
52 min This game feels more clearly defined than ever: Brazil attack, Italy counter-attack. But actually it’s Italy who are looking more menacing just now. Rossi falls over in the box after a shoulder charge from Luizinho and the referee Klein waves him to his feet. That looks the right decision, although it was a risky challenge from Luizinho.
51 min Oriali wins the ball decisively from Eder, who has hardly had a kick apart from the free ones, and launches another Italian counter-attack. Conti plays the ball to Antognoni, runs onto a beautifully chipped return pass, comes inside Oscar on the left corner of the box … and then stabs a weary shot wide of the far post. In his defence he had run 60 yards. In Brazil’s defence ... there is no defence.
50 min Brazil have eight men forward in attack – eight – but Junior wafts a poor pass out of play. Their formation is usually listed as 4-4-1-1 or 4-2-2-2, but the full-backs play so far forward that in many ways it’s more like 2-7-1.
48 min We talk a lot about what Brazil do with the ball, not unreasonably, but their movement off the ball in this game has been outrageously good, particularly the late runs from midfield of Socrates and Falcao.
48 min “Scirea,” says John Foot, “is one of the best defenders ever.”
He’s easily the best sweeper since Beckenbauer, although there’s a Danish bloke at Anderlecht who’s also very good.
47 min: Gorgeous football again from Brazil! Falcao, just inside the Italy half to the right of centre, feeds an angled pass to Junior and sets off. Serginho and Zico drag the defenders the other way, allowing Junior to play a return pass into the area for Falcao, who bursts past Tardelli and then sidefoots just wide of the far post from a tightish angle.
Zoff may have had it covered but most credit goes to Scirea, the only man who didn’t buy Serginho’s and Zico’s off-the-ball runs and got across just in time to ensure Falcao had to take the shot under considerable pressure. That was outstanding defending.
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46 min Peep peep! Italy kick off from left to right. It remains unthinkable, but Brazil are only 45 minutes away from going out of the World Cup.
“Hi Rob,” says Peter Oh. “Isn’t Socrates a doctor? He has scored one but he needs another one if he wants to tell the Italians to ‘take two of these and call me in the morning!’”
HALF TIME: Italy 2-1 Brazil
Nobody predicted this scoreline. But then nobody thought Italy were going to come out and play gorgeous football. They’re making quite a match of this. Quite a match indeed.
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45+2 min A Junior corner from the left causes havoc and almost leads to an equaliser. One Italian defender headed it off the back of another at the near post, after which it deflected to Zico on the byline.
He improvised and lobbed over Zoff towards the far post, where it hit the under-pressure Serginho on the back before being hoofed to safety by Oriali. That’s the final touch of the half, an unbecomingly agricultural end to a stunning half of football.
45+1 min An Eder free-kick hits the wall for the 47th time today. This time it flattens Tardelli, smacking him straight in his sweat-soaked phizog.
45 min Graziani combines with Antognoni on the left, gets past a woolly challenge from Cerezo and is denied a simple chance by a vital lunging tackle from Oscar. For all the brilliance of Brazil’s attacking play, Italy have probably had the greater chances.
44 min Oriali introduces Socrates to an advertising hoarding – Caloi bicycles, since you asked – with a gentle shove. Socrates signals an elbow at Klein with mild irritation and then gets back to business.
43 min There have been some mighty performances in this half: Rossi, Zico, Falcao, Scirea, Antognoni, Cerezo (that shocking mistake aside) and Klein have been especially good.
42 min Zico becomes the first player to be undressed in a World Cup match. You don’t need me to tell you that Gentile is the man who disrobed him. He’s basically ripped Zico’s shirt in half!
Socrates’ through ball somehow found its way through to Zico, who managed to escape Gentile’s wandering hands just long enough to strike an off-balance shot that was beaten away by Zoff.
Zico then showed his shirt, which has a huge hole around the right side of the stomach, to the referee Klein, but that’s irrelevant as he had been flagged offside before Gentile started to strip him naked. Having said that, it looks a very tight offside decision on the one replay we have seen. There were no complaints about that decision, however.
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40 min A sweet move from Brazil, a languid relay run down the centre of the field involving Leandro, Cerezo, Junior (whose nominal position of left-back really is little more than a basis for negotiation) and Serginho, ends with Falcao’s first-time shot from the edge of the area being deflected wide. The resulting corner from Eder flashes right across the face of goal with Zoff flapping.
38 min It’s a steamy/sultry/bloody hot day in Barcelona, over 90 degrees, and most of the players’ kits have turned into wetsuits. Brazil have some particularly striking sweat patches dotted around their yellow tops.
36 min Rossi is flattened as he goes for a high ball with Luizinho. The referee Klein, like a father telling his weeping son it’s only a scratch, wanders over, pats him on the side and then lifts a wincing Rossi to his feet. He is so impressive, the best referee in the world, and it will be a scandal if he doesn’t get the final this time.
34 min Collovati is replaced by Giuseppe Bergomi, who is making his second appearance for Italy. He’s only 18, although he has one of the thicker moustaches you’ll ever see. He makes Norman Whiteside look like an actual teenager by comparison.
33 min Eder spanks the free-kick straight into the wall. A few seconds later, with Italy temporarily down to 10 men, Socrates almost grabs his second goal! Cerezo curled over a good cross from a deep, narrow position on the right which cleared a big posse of bodies around the penalty spot. Socrates, arriving late in space at the far post, headed spectacularly but straight at Zoff from 12 yards. That was a decent chance.
32 min Before the free-kick is taken, Collovati goes down in the area. There’s no suggestions of funny business – I don’t think there was anyone near him – but he’s struggling and the referee Abraham Klein has called for a stretcher.
31 min Gentile fouls Zico just outside the area on the right, a decision with which he’s not entirely enamoured. The two players shake hands as Zico gets to his feet.
29 min This game, eh. I thought Brazil were going to wipe the floor with Italy.
27 min The goal doesn’t seem to have affected Brazil one iota. They have picked up exactly where they left off, playing the same beach football we have seen in the last two weeks. Italy look dangerous, though, in a way they previously haven’t in this tournament. They certainly haven’t lived down to expectations. And Rossi, who came into this game without an international goal since 1979, has scored twice in the first half an hour.
GOAL!!! Italy 2-1 Brazil (Rossi 25)
What an appalling mistake from Cerezo! Italy are back in front! It all came from that Antognoni free-kick. Waldir Peres faffed around a bit and then threw the ball out to the right-back Leandro. He laid it square to Cerezo, 30 yards from the Brazil goal, and he knocked another lazy square pass towards a pocket of Brazilian players.
The problem was that they were loitering with all the urgency of civil servants in the tea room and had no idea the ball was coming. It also bisected them perfectly. Luizinho was trotting upfield, Falcao wasn’t expecting the pass and it was too late by the time Junior realised what day it was. He dived in; Rossi beat him to the ball, ran to the edge of the area and thrashed a shot straight through Waldir Peres.
I know this team want to be the spiritual heirs to 1970, but there’s no reason to homage Clodoaldo’s cock-up against Italy in 1970. That didn’t cost Brazil; this one might. As things stand Italy are in the semis!
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24 min A bit of respite for Italy, with Tardelli fouled 25 yards from goal. Antognoni’s deflected free-kick loops gently into the arms of Waldir Peres.
22 min “Socrates has to be one of the coolest footballers ever, Rob,” says Simon McMahon. “I want to wear a headband and have a beard like his when I’m older (I’m ten and a half). Though my dad says he smokes like a chimney and also likes a drink, as well as being a ‘leftie’, and that I should aspire to be someone a bit more wholesome, like, say, Alan Hansen. But where’s the fun in that? Can you tell him, please.”
I’ll send my dad, who is well hard, round to tell him.
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19 min Brazil are playing beautifully now, with this wonderful midfield pair of Cerezo and Falcao galloping forward at every opportunity. This looks a bit ominous for Italy.
17 min Falcao, inside his own half, plays the ball into Zico and keeps running. Zico holds off Gentile, turns to face him and plays a wonderful angled pass back towards Falcao, who had run off the back of Cabrini. With a better first touch he would have been through on Zoff, but the ball bobbled awkwardly and he was pushed wide.
Brazil have been so good at these long-range one-twos in the tournament, usually through Zico: Junior’s goal against Argentina, Socrates’ today and now Falcao’s chance. Forty seconds later, Cerezo’s teasing cross is headed further across the area by Falcao, and Serginho is just shaping to blooter a volley into orbit when Collovati stretches to head clear.
16 min There’s a cracking pace to this game. Brazil are dominating possession but Italy look very dangerous when they do they attack. “I’ve never known anything like it,” says the BBC summariser Bobby Charlton. “The most fantastic start to any World Cup match I’ve ever seen.” I say!
14 min: Gentile is out of the semi-final! He’s been booked for taking a shortcut through the back of Zico, and he won’t play on Thursday if Italy make the semis. Yellow cards are usually a bit of an event but you can’t really call this a surprise, can you? Gentile got away with maimage against Maradona the other day, but Abraham Klein has shown him a yellow card for his first bad tackle. The happiest man in the world might be Zbigniew Boniek: if Italy get through to the semi-final against Poland, Gentile will not be there to mark him.
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GOAL!!!! Italy 1-1 Brazil (Socrates 12)
What a beautiful equalising goal! This is a masterpiece of elegant simplicity. It involved just two players, Socrates and Zico. Socrates, just past the halfway line, slipped a straight pass into Zico and kept running. Zico, 25 yards out, ignored Gentile’s burgeoning plan to defile him with a majestic Cruyff turn and then stabbed a sudden, disguised pass for Socrates, down the side of the sweeper Scirea.
Socrates ran off Tardelli, past the slightly flat-footed Scirea, lit up a couple of Gauloises and then, from a tight angle, simply passed the ball in at the near post. Zoff will probably feel he should have done better but Socrates may have given him the eyes. And the whole thing was so smooth that, frankly, it feels wrong to dwell on any defensive inadequacies. That’s a fitting addition to Brazil’s absurd portfolio of goals in this tournament.
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12 min Saying which...
12 min Conti, receiving a throw out from Zoff in a dangerous position on the edge of his own box, moves cockily away from Eder. That’s a reflection of the confidence with which Italy and Conti in particular have started.
11 min: OH, WHAT A MISS! The knives have been out for Serginho for most of this tournament, and a few more serrated ones will be unsheathed after this appalling miss. Socrates started the move with a crisp ball into Serginho, 35 yards out. He was dispossessed by a combination of Cabrini and Collovati - but then, in a whirl of collisions and cartoon clouds, Scirea’s attempted clearance hit Serginho and went to Zico, who played a simple pass to put Serginho through on goal.
He was 14 yards out, with just Zoff to beat – and he lummoxed a hopeless shot well wide of the far post. That was desperate. He attacked the ball with all the calmness and control of a teenage boy attacking his firs- well, never mind, let’s just say that his his hamfooted shot bobbled past the post. “The sort of miss that a Sunday morning player shouldn’t have been guilty of,” says the BBC commentator John Motson.
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9 min Shambolic play from the left-back Junior gives Italy another chance. First he played a nonchalant pass down the left; it looked good but there was no Brazilian player within 20 yards; seconds later, after Brazil had regained possession, he was contemptuously dispossessed by Conti, who launched a counter-attack with a long pass by Rossi.
Leandro got there first but then haplessly miscontrolled it straight into the path of Rossi. He backheeled it to Graziani, who thrashed his 20-yard shot over the bar. That was pathetic defending from Brazil. The camera cuts to the Italy coach Enzo Bearzot, shouting desperately to his team. With his rimless sunglasses, stern visage and bright lilac shirt, he looks like the greatest nemesis Theo Kojak never had.
8 min Zico is fouled by Gentile, not far the last time, 30 yards from goal and a little to the left. This is first chance for Eder, whose preposterous free-kick against Argentina hit the bar and led to Zico’s opening goal. This time his run-up starts somewhere near La Rambla, and he hammers it straight into the wall.
7 min Zico tries to score straight from the kick-off. A lively conceit at the best of times, even more so against the great Dino Zoff. Zico miskicks and Zoff claims it somewhere near the corner flag.
6 min The last team to stir the beast by taking the lead against Brazil, poor old Scotland, were dismantled 4-1. The kick off has been delayed because an Italian fan has lobbed a firecracker into the Brazilian penalty area in celebration. The delay is over a minute until, with the camera lingering on the firecracker, a shoe appears from out of shot to hoof it straight back towards the Italian fans! Have some of that!
GOAL! Italy 1-0 Brazil (Rossi 5)
Precisely 60 seconds after that miss, Rossi has given Italy the lead! It was a beautifully worked goal. Bruno Conti circled lazily away from Cerezo near the halfway line, made 15 yards, swerved away from Eder’s token challenge and then swept a regal outside-of-the-foot crossfield pass to the onrushing Cabrini on the left.
He coaxed an excellent cross to the far post where Rossi, given far too much space between Luizinho and Junior, planted a decisive header back across Waldir Peres from six yards. Could we have a major shock on here? As things stand, Italy will be playing Poland in the semi-final!
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4 min “So much of Brazil’s mythology has grown from their 1958 win,” sniffs Matt Dony. “And that was only because they didn’t face John Charles in the quarter finals. (In the end, some young Brazilian fella hogged the headlines in that match instead of Il Gigante Buono.) In memory of his time at Juve, I hope Italy pull this off. Can’t see it, though. The proverbial snowball’s chance against a beautiful Brazil side.”
4 min: What a chance for Paolo Rossi! A patient move from Italy ended with Antonio Cabrini lofting a fine pass down the left for Marco Tardelli, who fizzed a superb cut-back to Rossi, in a bit of space 12 yards out. He completely missed his kick, beaten by the pace of Tardelli’s cut-back, and then as he attempted a second go he fell on his backside after running into Toninho Cerezo.
He made a rare old mess of that chance. That’s Rossi tournament in miniature. We know he is a class act, but he is having a miserable time. His last goal for Italy was 1,118 days ago, and he looks so rusty after his two-year ban for his involvement in the Totonero betting scandal.
3 min It’s a very open start, this, at both ends. Whisper it, but Italy may have come to play.
2 min The good news for Zico is that he was passed fit to play today. The bad news for Zico is that he was passed fit to play today: he’s going to be marked by Claudio Gentile. For an attacker that invariably means pain in the post, and usually by special delivery.
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1 min Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! Brazil kick off from left to right to the distinctive peep of caxirolas that have been such a part of this tournament. The pitch markings look like they have been done by Jackson Pollock’s marginally more methodical brother. There are straight lines along one part, angled lines across another and little white circles dotted all around the pitch. It’s a seriously hot afternoon at the Sarrià Stadium in Barcelona, the kind we are contractually obliged to describe as either sultry or steamy.
Zico and Serginho look very relaxed as they wait to kick off. Wouldn’t you if you were playing in this team?
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Team news You know what they say: if it’s perfect, don’t fix it: Brazil are unchanged from the team that humiliated Argentina 3-1 on this ground three days ago.
This is the fourth consecutive match in which they have named the same XI. It includes Roma’s Falcao, the only man on either side who plays his football overseas. Falcao wasn’t guaranteed a place a month ago but he has been the player of the tournament so far.
There was talk that the veteran Franco Causio might replace Paolo Rossi, whose last goal for Italy came over three years ago, but they are also unchanged.
Italy (5-3-2) Zoff; Orialli, Collovati, Scirea, Gentile, Cabrini; Conti, Tardelli, Antognoni; Rossi, Graziani.
Brazil (4-4-1-1ish) Waldir Peres; Leandro, Oscar, Luizinho, Junior; Falcao, Cerezo, Socrates, Eder; Zico; Serginho.
Referee Abraham Klein (Israel)
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Preamble
If today’s match were on a movie poster, the tagline might be: Brazil v Italy. Attack v defence. Jogo bonito v Catenaccio. Good v evil. Brazil are, depending on your preferred metaphor, playing football from the future or playing a different sport altogether. Of the 12 goals they have scored in four consecutive wins, nine have been genuine belters. They have soundtracked España 82 with the unfettered joy of samba beats. (Literally, as their fans give it plenty.) The world has fallen hopelessly in love, our hearts beating to every jazzy syncopation.
Italy have engaged one of the other senses. Thus far their clunking, ersatz form of catenaccio has stunk the place out. They were lucky to get through the group stage without winning a single game. And although they were better in beating Argentina 2-1 six days ago, only their third win in the last 15 games, would you believe, that victory was down to well-rationed counter-attacks and Claudio Gentile’s man-marking job on Diego Maradona – not so much a case of persistent fouling as occasional non-fouling. There has been no great attacking fluency. And yet, for all that, in two hours’ time, Italy could be in the semi-finals ahead of Brazil.
The scenario is simple: Italy need a win, Brazil a draw. It is a nicely contradictory state of affairs – the attacking side need the draw, the defensive side the win – but you would still expect both sides to assume their usual roles. Not least because of the performances of both teams so far have been like extreme archetypes. Most people feel that Italy have two chances today – and slim is unavailable through suspension.
If they do pull it off, the childhood discoveries about Santa and the Tooth Fairy will have nothing on the distress that will envelop the watching world of football. I wouldn’t worry too much. Based on everything we’ve seen so far, this movie is surely going to have a happy ending
Kick off is at 5.15pm in Barcelona on 5 July 1982, 8pm in London on 21 April 2020.
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