An Italian 90s fairytale, Vicenza.
A team that once challenged for the Scudetto but finished runners-up in the late 70s, led by Paolo Rossi. Only one participation in Europe, losing in their first ever match up against Dukla Praha. Ironically, they got relegated the same season.
Fast forward to season 1995-96 and Vicenza returns to Serie A after that 1978-79 season which looked too good to be true for them. Upon return, their main signings are two Uruguayans, Marcelo Otero and Gustavo Mendez, from Penarol and Nacional respectively. They finish in a safe mid-table position. In the same season, they lose in the Cup to midtable Serie B side, Palermo.
Season 1996-97 looks to be rather similar in Serie A, improving their standing from 9th to 8th despite collecting fewer points. But this time, the Coppa Italia story was different. Vicenza would qualify to the quarter finals where they would face Milan, who were Serie A defending champions but were struggling at the time. A goal by Ambrosetti would see Vicenza get a vital away goal in a 1-1 draw, while the return leg finished 0-0. Vicenza was in the semi final of the Coppa Italia for the first time ever, facing Bologna who were in a similar league position as them. A first leg win with 1-0 and a late equalizer to 1-1 at Bologna would see them reach the final for the first time! This was a team that could barely get past the first round of the cup and barely had reached the quarters once in their history (losing to Inter).
The final would see them face a former superpower in decline that was trying to get their hands on any silverware. This was none other than Napoli. The first leg would be played away, so the decisive second leg was at home for Vicenza.
Struggling Napoli would see a clean 1-0 win vs Vicenza in the first leg with the Vicenza keeper pulling some heroic saves to minimize the deficit.
Vicenza would then equalize this score early in the game but could not overcome Napoli in normal time. Extra time was needed, and the penalty shootout was very close. Until.... two late goals in the 118th and 120th minutes would seal the triumph! Vicenza would win their first trophy in history!
You can see the HLs of the decisive final here. Emotions cannot be put in a transcript really.
[youtube]G79wSg5jl5o[/youtube]
For the record, Inter lost to Napoli in the semi final, in penalties. So it could have been us as the main antagonists of Vicenza's story or we could have removed this from history altogether. Which would have also rewrite history for us as we'd be playing in the Cup Winners Cup instead of the Uefa Cup in 1997-98, meaning no Inter-Lazio final with that majestic Ronaldo performance. It's remarkable how some tiny bits of history going different can affect so many things.
So Vicenza goes into season 1997-98 with a trip to Europe for their second time ever, and as their return in Serie A got them signing two players from Uruguay, they decided to bring another one on board. This time it was a player that was already in Europe for a season, Ricardo Canals. He did not really have much of an effect though and soon left for Rosario Central in Argentina. They also got Massimo Ambrosini from Milan on loan that year, as well as signed the so called "Zidane of Serie B", Lamberto Zauli.
Vicenza plays in Europe's second most prestigious tournament (more like 2A and 2B situation with the Uefa Cup) and who can blame them for being excited? First matchup is against Polish side Legia.
[youtube]ClcmTbiW0n8[/youtube]
This is also their first ever victory in Europe. An away draw with 1-1 would seal the qualification, their first in European competitions of course.
Their next matchup would see them face Shakhtar Donetsk, a team that we have known in Europe as a decent side since the 2000s, but prior to that they were in the shadow of Dynamo Kyiv and not really a name that caused fear. Vicenza would beat them home and away, which would take them to the quarter finals!
Meanwhile, they would fail to replicate their Coppa Italia success as they'd once more lose to a Serie B side, Pescara this time.
There, they would face Dutch side Roda. And this is where the party really starts. But their Serie A form would suggest otherwise. At the time, Serie A consisted of 18 teams and 4 would get relegated. Previous season's cup runners up Napoli were dead last, whereas Vicenza was marginally clear of the relegation spots, sitting just 3 points away from relegation. With 11 games to go, things looked worrying. But spirits were high.
So high, that Vicenza would completely destroy Roda, both home and away. They were still undefeated in Europe with 3 wins and 1 draw, and they added two emphatic wins, 4-1 away (leading 4-0) and a 5-0 hammering at home. In truth, Roda was also struggling in the Dutch league, but it remains a very impressive win. Especially one that led to a European semi final for the minnows from the small town of 100,000 people.
There, they would face Chelsea. A team that started to collect a lot of former stars, as well as former Italian prodigy Gianfranco Zola. This was a team that also had Gianluca Vialli; as player/manager!, Dan Petrescu [of Zeman's Foggia], Tore Andre Flo and Roberto Di Matteo along with some local stars such as Dennis Wise and Mark Hughes. This was the rise of Chelsea as they would then proceed to sign some more important figures after following a policy of hiring former legends (Ruud Gullit, followed by Vialli as player-manager) before Abramovich bought the club.
The first game was at home, and Vicenza did what they did all year long in Europe at their vibrant home ground. They won!
[youtube]siMwvbPAwTA[/youtube]
This is truly worth the watch. And Zauli's goal was really something special. Truly Zidanesque before Zidane was even cool.
Unfortunately, the fairytale had to end in London, with a 3-1 defeat against eventual title winners Chelsea
[youtube]D1Im1kgTveY[/youtube]
Despite the opener by Vicenza with the leading scorer of the tournament, Pasquale Luiso, Chelsea would comeback and overcome the 2 goal aggregate deficit.
Vicenza at the end of the day finished 1 point clear of relegation, but in truth they were safe with at least 2 matches to go, which they lost.
They could not avoid relegation in the next season. Both their Uruguayan stars decided to leave the club.
But they came back strong as they won Serie B for the first time since 1977.
It did not last long. They looked like they could have managed to avoid relegation, but a 0-0 draw vs Lecce with 4 games to go did not unblock them from relegation zone. They then lost 2-1 in the regional derby which left them in 13th placed, but with the same amount of points as Reggina who were 15th [which was a playout position] and they had to knock points of title chasing Juventus the next game, which they could not do, as they lost 3-0. They were now in relegation zone, with just 1 game to go where they have to travel to Udinese and get a win and hope for other teams to fail in order to get a second chance in a play out game.
Table looked like this:
13. Lecce 34 pts (clear of relegation)
14. Reggina 34 pts (playout)
15. Verona 34 pts (playout)
16. Vicenza 33 pts (relegation)
17. Napoli 33 pts (relegation)
18. Bari 20 pts (relegated)
Lecce was facing Lazio at home who were locked in third position. An otherwise tough matchup.
Reggina was facing struggling Milan at home who had a winless streak of 4 games.
Napoli had to travel to Fiorentina who were in a midtable position.
Verona was playing against Perugia who had nothing to play for either.
Vicenza did their duty and they beat Udinese (12th place, but safe) 3-2 away in a game that saw all goals come before half time and Vicenza's initial 3-0 lead cut short early on.
Lecce achieved a win vs Lazio, overcoming a 1-0 half time loss to a 2-1 final score. Lazio did not rest its key players.
Reggina beat Milan in a thriller. Milan got a late lead with Kaladze in the 70th minute but less than 10 minutes later, Reggina equalized. And not 5 minutes later, Inter loanee, Portuguese Paulo Costa, completed the win, which also enabled Inter to finish ahead of Milan in the table shortly after that disastrous defeat.
Verona managed to win 2-1 in a tough match vs Perugia.
The crazy final matchday was complete when the other relegation battling team pulled this off, with a former player of their opponent getting the late winner as well!
[youtube]dpmRVBFVkqM[/youtube]
[the first goal here was the match winner, you can see that the players knew that no matter what, they'd be relegated and how Edmundo did not celebrate against his former club either as futile as it'd be]
In another world, this could have decided the relegation, but both Napoli and Vicenza, 1997 potentially altering history Cup rivals, would both be condemned to Serie B. We all know that Napoli would eventually return to Serie A. Vicenza
on the other hand has still not returned to the top flight after that day. Today they are in Serie B, somewhere in the middle of the table.
P.S:
A nice video of Vicenza's 1997-98 run
[youtube]hePBVxvyfYk[/youtube]
Bonus:
Paolo Rossi with Vicenza's jersey
Best I could do with Paolo Rossi's goals with Vicenza. Includes some with Perugia there.
[youtube]I1WuEdcd7HQ[/youtube]
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Nostradamus
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