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Juve - Torino Classics: A Miracle at the Comunale
Throughout the day, we'll be updating the page with Derby della Mole highlights that bring back the fondest and most painful of memories, for fans not just of the Turinese sides, but of Serie A in general. Of what Italian football was, of what it is, of the flavour it needs to preserve if it wants to preserve its identity in the future.
A Miracle at the Comunale
Torino 3-2 Juventus
Goals: Rossi 15' (J), Platini 65' (J), Dossena 71'
(T), Bonesso 72' (T), Torrisi 74' (T)
Torino: Terraneo, Van De Korput, Beruatto,
Zaccarelli, Danova, Galbiati, Torrisi (78'
Corradini), Dossena, Selvaggi, Hernandez,
Borghi (59' Bonesso).
Coach: Bersellini.
Juventus: Zoff, Gentile, Cabrini, Bonini, Brio,
Scirea, Bettega, Tardelli, Rossi, Platini, Boniek.
Coach: Trapattoni.
Years before AC Milan saw their three-goal lead vanish in six crazy minutes in that famous Champions League final in Istanbul, another Italian team let in another three – in about half the time.
As usual, Juventus were coasting this particular Derby della Mole, and were two goals up with twenty minutes to go. Fresh from his World Cup triumph in Spain, Paolo Rossi had put them the lead in the first half thanks to some horrific defending from the Granata, full-back Michel van der Korput in particular.
Things went from bad to worse in the second half, when talisman Renato Zaccarelli clumsily brought another Espana 1982 hero, Zbigniew Boniek. A certain Michel Platini stepped up, and it was 2-0, despite goalkeeper Giuliano Terraneo saving the Frenchman’s first effort.
“If something unusual didn’t happen,” Terraneo later said “being 2-0 down to that Juventus team basically meant game over”.
Well, would two goals in sixty seconds do? Two crosses, two goals: first, Roberto Galbiati from the right to Andrea Dossena’s header. 71 minutes in, Torino were still alive.
Juve barely had time to collect themselves before realizing that they’d given it away again, and the Granata made it count: Paolo Beruatto’s wonderful cross, this time from the left, found Alessandro Bonesso’s head. Cue bedlam, the Comunale completely loses it as Juve succumb to a lethal one-two on 72 minutes.
Dino Zoff would latest call this the most disappointing defeat in his career, and we can understand why: barely 120 seconds later, Van der Korput got the chance to make amends with a well-placed cross to Fortunato Torrisi.
Fortunato is Italian for luck, though there was nothing fluky about his spectacular scissor kick, sending the crowd into raptures and Torino into a 3-2 lead they would hold till the final whistle.
Sergio Brio still looks like a traumatized man when trying to explain what the heck happened: “There’s nothing you can do in moments like that, but look at one another. That was a cursed year, the defeat in the derby would foreshadow Juve’s inability to react to Hamburg in the European Cup Final”.
