February 21 – Fight Club | On This Football Day

February 21 – Fight Club

ONE of the most remarkable and, it has to be said, amusing, on-pitch brawls took place today in 2007 when Internationale and Valencia clashed in the aftermath of their Champions League last-16 second leg.

A tense goalless second leg ended with the Spanish side progressing to the next round on away goals when unused Valencia substitute David Navarro raced onto the pitch and landed a peach of a right hook square on Nicolas Burdisso’s nose, breaking it and sparking a melee that saw players and coaches from both sides go at it hammer and tongs.

As soon as the Spanish midfielder had landed his blow he proceeded to get the hell out, making a beeline for the dressing room, but found a posse of Inter players chasing him in a Keystone Cops stylee.

Players traded blows on the pitch as Navarro was chased down the tunnel where he would lock himself in the dressing room as the Nerazzuri waited for him outside.

The incident was sparked off when Valencia’s Marchena followed up a heated debate with Burdisso by kicking out at the Italian. Navarro later said: “I saw that they were trying to attack a team-mate, and I lost my nerve. I have never behaved in this fashion before, and I will never do it again. I am very sorry and ashamed.”

Inter boss was not very impressed by Navarro’s hit-and-run tactics, calling him a “coward” as “there’s nothing else you can say about someone who throws a punch like that and runs away.”

Uefa immediately launched an investigation into the chaotic scenes and ended up throwing the book at Navarro almost as hard as he threw his punch. As chief perpetrator he received a seven-month ban from all competitions, with his team-mate Marchena receiving a four-game ban and the Inter pair of Burdisso and Maicon, whose hunting down of Navarro provided some excellent comedy value, both being forced to sit out the next six games. The two clubs were both fined £106,000, but Valencia escaped a stadium ban.

Although we never like to condone violence here at OTFD, it’s hard not laugh at the shambolic scenes in Spain above, so enjoy them, have a look at what else was going on today here and make sure you’re back for some more of the same tomorrow.