Match Report
Prior to kick-off, there was a minute’s applause (yes, applause, not silence) to honour the memory of Gaetano Scirea, the defender who became a world champion with ‘gli Azzurri’ in 1982. He had tragically died, aged 36, whilst on a scouting mission for Juventus in Poland only 17 days earlier. However, rather than silence, the Cesena crowd stood up and applauded, and shouted Scirea’s name throughout the minute in what was a fine and worthy display of remembrance and compassion.
First half:
Kick-off had been given to Bulgaria, and Yordanov and Stoichkov brought the game to life. After only a minute and half there is a taste of what will come when Bergomi sees his forward pass for De Napoli evade both Dochev and Balakov, and the Napoli wide man tries to find his club colleague Carnevale in front of goal. However, Valov comes out to gather the ball right in front of the striker. And not long after, a delightful triangle between De Napoli and Vialli will release Bergomi for another cross into the area. Unfortunately, there is a lack of precision, so it leads to nothing. Italy have shown their attacking intent, although it would not be a common sight to have the home skipper galopping forward.
As the hosts were beginning to feel confident, Yordanov proceeds to release Stoichkov in behind Maldini. Baresi tries to reach the Bulgarian captain before he is able to get his shot away, but he can’t get there in time, and as Stoichkov races towards the penalty area, Zenga comes out to try and thwart the striker. The forward hits a left-foot shot on the half-volley, and it strikes the bottom of the post to the left of the goalkeeper and rolls agonisingly along the goalline and out for a goal kick. What an eventful start to the game!
The initial pace subsequently slows down a bit, allowing the game to settle. As had been expected, it was the home side dictating the flow of the match, and whenever the visitors were in possession of the ball, you could be sure you would get a lot of aggression from the home players, trying to win back possession. This was a particular feature of De Napoli’s game, and he certainly personified the Italian desire to win. There were some fine battles between experienced home defender Bergomi and Bulgaria striker Penev, who would often seek towards the left side area of the pitch, the territory which the home team’s number 2 was defending. Stoichkov was trying to take advantage of what at times appeared to be a lot of youthful zeal seen by 21 year old Maldini on the opposite flank. Yordanov, even if he had played Stoichkov through for that huge opportunity only four minutes into the game, was not posing much of a threat to the home defence, but exactly that chance had made the Italians aware that they could not take him all too lightly.
Just over 16 minutes into the game, the referee awards Italy a penalty when Bankov is careless with a tackle on Carnevale just inside his own penalty area. Moments earlier, the referee had been wrong not to award Iliev a free-kick a few yards inside his own half when Carnevale had gone in on him strongly, leaving the Bulgarian libero in a heap on the floor and in need of treatment. The visitors felt hard done by, and Ivanov felt outraged at the decision not to award Bulgaria a free-kick for Iliev. The referee has a word with him before the penalty, and when Iliev has been treated and retrieves back, he approaches Mr Constantin as the Belgian is trying to explain his decision to Ivanov. The referee gets agitated with Iliev when the Bulgarian libero is trying to point out that he should have been awarded a free-kick, and he promptly shows the visiting number 5 the yellow card. Then he proceeds to lecture Ivanov, although without producing another booking. The penalty was never in doubt; it was a correct decision. However, the visitors were incensed at not having been awarded a free-kick for Carnevale’s foul on Iliev. Baggio is totally unfazed as he steps up and slots home the penalty to the left of Valov. 1-0 to the hosts. The intimate Dino Manuzzi stadium comes alive with noise from the crowd.
Even if there is not an awful lot happening in front of either goal, the game has ok pace to it; not bad at all for a friendly. The Italian crowd clearly appreciates some delicate touches from both Vialli and Baggio; they could almost be mistaken for showboating. As previously mentioned, Baggio did not always stick to the left side of the pitch, and when he came across to the opposite side, he would collaborate with Vialli, and twice they tried to find De Napoli down the flank. Dochev, the visitors’ left-back, needed to be alert to this particular danger, and he did adjust after these two attempts.
Bankov, the player who had given away the penalty when he slid into Carnevale, was the holding midfield man for the visitors. Aged 24, the Etar player was featuring in only his second international, and his inexperience had shown at times, and not only in the situation leading to the penalty. He struggled when in possession of the ball, and Marocchi was usually the more tigerish of the home players in the central areas. Petkov, another midfielder of little international pedigree, was having some problems of his own, and as a result the Bulgarian right hand side was pretty much left to Stoichkov to explore alone. Thus, Maldini’s defensive task was often bearable, despite the tricks that the Bulgarian captain had up his sleeve, and this allowed for the young Milan defender to join in attack every now and then.
Giannini, Roma’s ‘little prince’, had a relatively quiet first half in central midfield. He did combine well with Vialli and Baggio on a couple of occasions, but he was relatively static and did not pose much of a threat himself. He was also not as industrious as his partner Marocchi, who was bent on making life difficult for the visitors’ midfielders. Giannini is a player who is very highly rated by his contemporaries, so there is a lot more to expect from the Italian regista. Right on the half hour, Maldini sets Marocchi up for a cross from the left hand side, and he picks out Carnevale in front of goal, who sees his header just kiss the crossbar as it goes over. Big chance. The Napoli striker had done well to get in ahead of Iliev, but where was the closing down from the Bulgarian defence? Dimitrov had been passive, and the lack of width was apparent, as no player had tracked Marocchi’s run out to the left. Yordanov had been the closest to him, but six or seven yards away. Surely, it should have been Petkov’s task to look out for such runs. At the other end, Stoichkov had struck a free kick from 25 yards over the wall and safely into the hands of Zenga a few minutes earlier.
Italy were a big threat when they decided to attack Dochev’s territory. And this is where they went ahead to score their second goal: Baggio had picked up the left-back’s mistimed header inside the Italian half and played the ball forward into space for Vialli. As Dochev had been away from his position, there was a lot of scope for Vialli, who in turn fed Baggio as the Fiorentina star had sprinted forward. Ivanov tried to play the Italians offside, but he was far from in sync with the rest of his defence, where Iliev and Dimitrov were both storming back. Baggio ran at pace towards Valov, side-stepped the ‘keeper, and rolled the ball into the empty net for his and Italy’s second of the game. It was a perfect counter, and yet again the combination of Vialli and Baggio had proved a huge thorn in the Bulgarians’ side.
On 36 minutes, two minutes after 2-0, Baggio’s wonderful vision again creates an opportunity for the home side. This time it is Baresi who’s joined the attack, and as no-one tracks his run into the area, he can pick up Baggio’s perfectly chipped pass into his path, but he’s off balance as he finishes, and the ball ends up high above Valov’s goal. Baresi ought to have done better, but he might have been surprised at just how much space he was given. Again, there was some woeful defending from the Bulgarians, and they were a tad fortunate just to be two goals down at this stage. Their offside tactics were a shambles.
For the latter third of the first half, Penev and Stoichkov had switched sides, without a lot coming of it. Yordanov, who was supposed to feed the forwards, was being monitored well by the Italian midfield, and he was rarely able to produce telling moments, of course with the exception of the pass that saw Stoichkov hit the post early on. Five minutes from the break, Yordanov receives treatment on the sidelines for what appeared to be a troublesome hamstring. He would remain in the dressing room after the half-time break.
Second half:
On for Yordanov came Kostadinov, so the three former comrades at Sredets, if you add Stoichkov and Penev, now with Valencia, into the mix, were reunited. In practice, this meant that Stoichkov went into the centre, more or less taking over Yordanov’s role at the head of the diamond, although without much defensive responsibility, while Kostadinov was seen as the right-sided striker, Penev on the left. Italy were unchanged for the start of the second period.
It is Vialli and Giannini who set the second half in motion, and it will only take 30 seconds for Italy to increase their lead. Iliev had gone in too hard on Vialli out by the Italian right hand side, and when Baggio swung the free-kick into the area, Carnevale again got ahead of his marker, this time the unsuspecting Dimitrov, to flick the ball past Valov for 3-0. The goal is genius in its simplicity. Certainly, the visitors’ plan for the second half had not included falling further behind. And for a team where morale was possibly not their greatest asset, where next? Another penalty. Surely. Ivanov brings Vialli down inside the penalty area just a minute after the goal, but this time the Belgian referee says ‘non‘. It was just as much a penalty as it had been in the first half when Carnevale had been felled.
Baggio is pure terror to the Bulgarians. His wonderful body control, with his little shifts in gravity, his deft touches in combination with the inspired Vialli, it is all too much for the visitors to cope with, and having nearly been played through after a clever one-two with the Sampdoria forward, he returns the favour for 4-0 eight minutes into the half. Baggio had cleared attempted tackles from both Petkov and Bankov, before he played a short pass for Vialli to aim at goal from 20 yards. The striker’s shot takes a deflection off Iliev and ends up behind the despairing dive of Valov, who would probably have saved the shot had it not been for the deflection. Vialli has his deserved goal, while Baggio’s now been involved in all four Italian goals: he’s scored twice and assisted twice. It is some individual performance. In line with Italian statistics traditions, they had the goal down as an own goal by Iliev, although it would be maljustice to Vialli to take it away from him.
The start to the second half sure is eventful, and only a minute after 4-0, Iliev is presented with a goalscoring opportunity of his own when Petkov gets to the byline and angles his pass 45 degrees. The Bulgarian libero strikes firmly from the edge of the area, and as the ball makes its way through a crowd of players, Zenga makes a save with his legs, and the ball spins out for a right wing corner. For a few moments the visitors have the Italians pegged back, and Stoichkov plays Kostadinov through with a chipped ball, but as the substitute only has Zenga between himself and a goal back, he scuffs his left-footed attempt well wide of goal. Kostadinov will have a quiet second half, and Penev looks uninterested throughout. It is only Stoichkov who seemingly has an appetite to do well among the three Bulgarian forwards.
Ivanov, who had been in debate with the referee moments after the Italian penalty had been awarded during the first half, begs for a yellow when he puts his hand out to stop a long ball from Giannini in reaching Vialli. Mr Constantin rewards him for his efforts. It leads to a free-kick from 35 yards which Ferri strikes in the ‘keeper’s chest height and with a lot of power, and with some difficulty Valov manages to save. Ferri, renowned for his man-marking, has got a powerful shot, and this is yet another weapon that Italy are able to call on. Shortly after, Mr Vicini makes his first substitution of the game when he takes Maldini off and replaces him with De Agostini.
Stoichkov, by now the leading player in the Bulgarian hierarchy and recently made captain, had not forgotten who it was who had started off the qualification campaign as the team skipper. As Italy have tuned the pace and intensity down a notch, Bulgaria twice within the space of two minutes are awarded free-kicks from shooting distance. Stoichkov had had an effort rather easily saved by Zenga during the first half, but these were set-pieces from longer range, and so he decided to roll the ball to former captain Iliev on both occasions. His shooting does not trouble the Italian goal on either occasion.
At the halfway point in the second half, Mr Vicini brings on his second substitute of the afternoon when Crippa replaces Marocchi in central midfield. The game had gone a bit flat, and Italy had conceded possession to the visitors. However, this may have been part of Vicini’s plot, as he knew they would never be on top for the entire 90 minutes in any game. They had pinned Bulgaria back for the best part of the opening hour. A bit of practice in chasing the opponents was too good an opportunity not to accept. Not that the away team managed to pose much of a threat. A good few of their players were disspirited by now, and it did not take world class defending to keep them out. With Crippa on in central midfield, though, Italy did not have the same level of aggression as when Marocchi had been there, and Stoichkov twice gets into shooting positions: the first drifts harmlessly wide, whilst the second is close to sneaking in high left into Zenga’s goal; it just misses the target. The same Stoichkov also directs a left wing corner diagonally for Iliev, again, to strike first time, but he does not connect cleanly for his volley, and the ball spins off his foot and out for a throw-in. The libero is often seen high up in the pitch at this point of the half.
With half an hour of the second half gone, the Italian manager takes his captain Bergomi off and replaces him with Ferrara. The new right-back is the fourth Napoli player on the pitch, something which is a national team record. This is the third and final substitution made by the hosts. Vialli takes over the captain’s armband. For Bulgaria, midfielder Simeonov will later replace the ineffective Petkov.
During the concluding 15 minutes, Baggio will yet again display his silky skills as he slaloms through the Bulgarian defence only to be stopped in his track illegally. The referee ajudges him to have gone down too easily, and so does not award a free-kick. At the other end, the Stoichkov-Iliev combination again comes to the fore, as the former swings in a deep cross from the left for the libero to connect full on volley at the back post, only to hit the side netting. Good effort. It is as close as the visitors will come, and the referee signals the end to the game a minute and 14 seconds into time added on for injuries.
Conclusion:
4-0 is obviously a comprehensive win, but it did flatter the Italians slightly. Bulgaria were presented with a few openings of their own, but they just could not take them. They were never as close as when Stoichkov hit the inside of the post within the opening five minutes. Then their woeful defending allowed the home side to score four times. Baggio produced a world class performance, and Vialli also excelled in a decent team performance by the navy blues. This was their second 4-0 win in succession.
58′
