Footballing Caporettos: Italian Heartbreaks in Europe

In the autumn of 1917, Italy was defeated by Austria-Hungary at the Battle of Caporetto, a military debacle so cruel and decisive that the legacy of national shame that emerged from it would – to a greater or lesser extent – lead to the ushering in of Italian Fascism and shape 20th century Italian and global history. In a way, it was Italy’s Culloden, an open wound in the national psyche that continues to be summoned in politics, society and pop culture today.

And although Italian football has enjoyed some magical European nights, with trophies making their way to cabinets in eight Italian cities including Florence, Naples and Parma, that debacle-at-Caporetto feeling is familiar – unshakeable even – to clubs across the peninsular. Here, we’ll look at five of these European heartbreaks that continue to haunt Italian clubs and their fans. 

However, when they turned up to their first ever European tie boasting a galactic forward-line of “Big” John Charles, Omar Sivori and Giampiero Boniperti, there was little prospect they would fail to progress against little-known Austrian champions Wiener SC, a feeling further reinforced after a first leg in Turin in which they recorded a comfortable 3-1 win.

But a surprise lay in wait for the Old Lady in Vienna. Wiener raced into a 3-0 lead at half-time, before putting another four goals past goalkeeper Carlo Mattrel in a second half characterised by Viennese mickey-taking and in-fighting among the Juventus players.

In the next morning’s La Stampa, two-time World Cup winning manager Vittorio Pozzo would scathingly remark: “Juventus were beaten on every front: in quickness, technique and tactics, but mainly in that they neglected to mark a single man, allowing the opposition free reign. The Viennese side played a stellar match, that much is to be acknowledged. But they were practically playing against nobody.” 

In the second round of the UEFA Cup against Bobby Robson’s Ipswich, Lazio were dealt a first-leg blow with Trevor Whymark grabbing a haul in a 4-0 rout. And although Renzo Garlaschelli’s first-minute opener in the return leg promised to reinvigorate the tie, the match was to descend into something of an anti-spectacle.

Tensions threatened to spill over when Giorgio Chinaglia had a scissor kick handballed off the line in the first half. And when Ipswich were awarded and converted a dubious penalty at 2-0, the Lazio players lambasted and cajoled referee Van Der Kroft as lighters, glass and pyrotechnics rained down from the terraces. Then in the 90th minute, with Lazio losing 5-4 on aggregate, Ipswich scored again, cuing mayhem on the pitch and on the terraces as Lazio players chased the visitors back into the away dressing room and fans invaded the pitch or spilled out onto the surrounding streets, fighting with English supporters and police, and setting cars ablaze.

Such shameful scenes could not go unpunished, and Lazio were consequently handed a one-year European ban. As fate would have it, this would be the biancocelesti’s year domestically as they emerged as Serie A champions for the first time, only to be denied a shot at club football’s greatest prize.

Fifteen minutes in, a hurried Dario Bonetti clearance landed a haymaker on goalkeeper Franco Tancredi, allowing Phil Neal to stab Liverpool in front. Their lead was short-lived, however, and Roberto Pruzzo equalised before half-time, whipping the Stadio Olimpico into a frenzy that galvanised the giallorossi as they went in search of a winner. But no winner came in regulation time or in extra time and Liverpool would break Roman hearts on penalties. 

History is supposed to be written by the winners. But in Rome it was Falcão – not Grobbelaar and his spaghetti legs – who became the face of Roma’s penalty shootout defeat. Not because the darling of Rome missed, but because he never volunteered to hit one at all. He would blame exhaustion. After all, for 120 minutes the weight of the city’s expectation had fallen squarely on his shoulders. But sympathy was understandably scarce among the 70,000 spent Roma supporters who trudged the long journey homewards that night.

In the first leg at the Stadio delle Alpi, Torino were held to a 2-2 draw, so they travelled to Amsterdam knowing they needed a win. In the return leg, Torino weathered early Ajax pressure before hitting the post from a Casagrande header and then from a Danny Blind deflection. As frustration grew in the second half, Torino were denied a penalty from a clumsy Frank De Boer challenge. In a preposterous showing of dissent, Torino boss Emiliano Mondonico immediately plucked a nearby fold-up chair and raised it high above his head, surely pleading with the football Gods to give their damned Torino a break just this once. It wasn't to be, and when youngster Gianluca Sordo hit the sweetest of strikes in the dying moments, the ball inevitably crashed back of the merciless face of the crossbar.

With the full-time whistle blown, captain Cravero echoed the sentiments of the entire city: "There's only one team in the world who can lose a final like that: Torino. We're cursed".

Just two months later, Deportivo La Coruña had done likewise, scoring three first-half goals (they would later add a fourth) to come back from 4-1 down in a Champions League quarter-final. Hardly the hallmark of an invincible team. 

And yet, when Hernán Crespo connected with perhaps the greatest pass in football history, there seemed little prospect that the rossoneri would "milan it" from a 3-0 lead. But capitulate they did and in the space of seven second-half minutes the experience of Maldini, Stam and Nesta laid out the red carpet for Gerrard, Šmicer and Xavi Alonso to equalise. Ancelotti's side showed fortitude to reassert themselves and should have won it through Jon Dahl Tomasson before Jerzy Dudek showcased his Matrix-like reflexes to keep out Andriy Shevchenko in the 117th minute.

Dudek would be Liverpool's hero in the resulting shootout with his own jelly legs, while Milan would have to wait just two years to exorcise their demon. But just as Caporetto lives longer in the collective memory than Italy’s subsequent 1918 victory at Vittorio Veneto, the nightmare of Istanbul will be forever etched in the memory – and identity – of Italy's most continentally successful club. 

By Andy Wallace