May 27, 1964. At the Prater Stadium in Vienna, the final of the ninth edition of the European Cup was to be played. The competition had existed since 1955 and during those years it had an undisputed champion: Real Madrid, five times winner and six-time finalist. In ’64, in Vienna, Di Stefano, Puskàs, Gento and company were about to close a cycle. Time, the relentless enemy, was being felt even on the shoulders of legends who had already etched their names with large letters in the history. They would have to beat Internazionale, led by an extravagant gentleman from Buenos Aires, who had already been coaching for ten years in Spain. His name was Helenio Herrera, nicknamed Il Mago (The Wizard).
He had left Iberian football abrubtly, with fans of Barcelona chasing him along the road to the airport asking him, not too politely, to leave. Herrera found a home in Milan and started to coach Angelo Moratti’s Inter. After two years of hard work he won the Italian Championship. Now he was there, at the Prater in Vienna, to get his revenge against a football that had dismissed him. “We were afraid, we were convinced of losing,” says Sandro Mazzola to FcInterNews.it. He is the son of Valentino Mazzola, hero of Grande Torino, he was twenty-one and had a surname heavier than a boulder. “He is not as good as the father…”, “Valentino scored more, he is overrated,” La Gazzetta dello Sport wrote after the first disappointing games of the young and exuberant Mazzolino.
Yet, on May 27, 1964 he is a starter in Vienna for the team that is going to play against his idol, Alfredo Di Stefano. “We had no television at home – he says – so when there were the finals of the European Cup, I want along with my brother to a small inn under our home. Real was always in the final and I admired Di Stefano, for me he was the God of football, the strongest of all.” He is still excited as he speaks of him. It seems that, fifty years after that game, he is not yet able to comprehend that he played against his idol. Herrera had prepared that game like any other. He opened his magic briefcase and explained to the boys the strengths and weaknesses of Real Madrid. One by one, he had called for the “confessional”, an interview in which he explained to each player what he should do in the game. “Sandro, you will be marked by Zoco. He is a midfielder and you’ll be playing in attack, he is slow and tall: he can not mark you”. Few words, but enough to give confidence to the boy.
“I had an incredible fear and il Mago knew that,” said Mazzola. On May 26, there is the usual greeting of the President to the team. He never failed to lend his support, imagine how it was before the biggest game. The day of the game, however, Herrera does not want anybody disturbing them, he has to work on the heads of the players. Sarti, Burgnich, Guarneri, Picchi, Tagnin, Facchetti, Suarez, Mazzola, Jair, Corso and Milani: these were the eleven players that entered the pitch at 19:45 on May 27. Tagnin? Yes, he is not a regular starter but Herrera knows he can rely on him: to mark Di Stefano all over the pitch. I think the good Carlo had the simplest task of his life. Guarneri took Puskàs, another one that didn’t have a bad foot. “Il Mago knew that everbody would fight and everyone would follow his instructions perfectly,” says Mazzola. There he was: Alfredo Di Stefano. “My legs were shaking, it did not seem real.”
For Sandro his legs trembled for the first forty minutes of the game: “I did almost everything wrong, I was too excited,” he confesses. Then, in the 43rd minutes, a flash: Mazzola releases an irresistible shot while standing that surprises goalkeeper Vicente. “Maybe there was a little deflection I do not remember. Usually I did not celebrate much, I raised my fist and embraced my teammates. After that goal I began to do two somersaults. For me the game was over.” “Look, while you are doing somersaults they are scoring four”: Luisito Suarez knows Real and, without a lot of words, brought back Sandro to earth. But now it’s another game because they are also human. The second half was more bubbly. Both teams attack, but Real has a big handicap: Di Stefano turns for each area of the field in search of oxygen, but Tagnin is in an agonistic trance. “He would have followed him even to the toilet – says Mazzola – he would not detach himself until the end of the game.” In the 62nd minute comes the eternal 2-0 by Milani, after endless battles with Müller and Santamaria, he still has the strength to let go of a precise shot with his right foot from the edge of the penalty area that enters the goal to the right of a guilty Vicente. The black and blue joy did not last long because in the 69th minute, with a play that as both a little acrobatic and a bit’dangerous, Felo shortens the distance and awakens Real. “I thought we’d lost. I was sure that they would come back,” recalls Mazzola.
But the design of Herrera is perfect: Corso plays free and creates paths in the attacking midfield; Picchi is made of reinforced concrete and his tackles are more timely than death; Facchetti and Jair run unabated and spread fear in the elegant defense of Los Blancos. In the 76th minute Santamaria missed a return, trying to fool Mazzola with the clearance. “I understood what he had, so I stepped back and I read his moves in advance,” said Sandrino. That way Mazzola steals the ball from Santamaria and beats Vicente for the third time. Now it’s really over, now Inter can really become champion. Moratti is carried in triumph by the fantastic team that will go down in history as the La Grande Inter and a coach who has just taken his revenge against a world that had not understood him.
Mazzola is looking for Di Stefano on the pitch, he wants to ask him for the shirt, but he was stopped by a gentleman who was a little chubby. That man was Ferenc Puskas who tells him something that would be difficult for him to forget: “I played against your dad, he was a great player and tonight you were worthy of his name.” “He gave me his number 10 shirt – says an excited Mazzola – the most important shirt that I have today. It was the best match of my entire life.”
Source: fcinternews.it
