May 19 – Milan’s Invincibles
END of season matches in Serie A have a bit of a reputation for throwing up the occasional ‘surprise’ result, so Bari’s 2-1 win over Milan today in 1991 probably didn’t raise too many eyebrows.
Arrigo Sacchi’s men bounced back however, as this would be their last league defeat for 58 games, as the ‘Incredibles’ went on one of the most barnstorming runs ever seen in European football.
Milan had spent the early 1980s in the doldrums, suffering demotion in 1980 thanks to their part in one of Italy’s many match-fixing scandals. Although they won Serie B the next season they suffered their worst ever campaign the year after, being relegated at the end of the 1981/82 season.
With the Rossoneri reeling both on the pitch and financially it took the arrival of the not-so-shy-and-retiring media mogul Silvio Berlusconi to bring around a change in the clubs fortunes.
The future Italian Prime Minister brought in up-and-coming coach Arrigo Sacchi who signed up Dutch trio Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten and Italian leading lights Roberto Donadoni and Carlo Ancelotti. Throw in legendary defender Franco Baresi and some kid named Paulo Maldini and all of a sudden Milan’s future was looking rosy.
Despite trailing Diego Maradona’s Napoli side for most of the 1987-88 season, Sacchi’s men picked up their first Scudetto for nine years and would win their third European Cup the following season.
Sacchi left to coach the Italian national side in 1991 and the reigns were handed over to Fabio Capello who raised the bar even higher, with the likes of Marcel Desailly and Croatian national hero Zvonimir Boban joining the party.
Capello was the man in charge during Milan’s unprecedented 58-match run, as he led them to three consecutive scudetti and also the spellbinding performance that we brought to you yesterday in the 1994 European Cup final.
Their undefeated Serie A run finally came to an end on 21 March 193, where a Faustino Asprilla goal gave Parma a 1-0 win over the Rossoneri.
Capello left to join Real Madrid in 1996 and Milan would lose their aura of invincibility, falling to 11th place in 1996/97.
These days, the only Invincible that remains is the peerless 40-year-old Paolo Maldini, although he assures us this will be his last season. But we’ve all heard that before.
The only other link to that famous team is the owner, but since returning to the office of Prime Minister last year, Berlusconi has had to step down as club president. In recent months he has filled this void by making a play for the George W. Award for Funniest/Stupidest World Leader, describing Barack Obama as ‘tanned’, trying to play hide and seek with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a summit and telling those that had lost their homes in the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake that they should view the experience as a camping weekend.
Anyway, back on the pitch, you can remind yourself just how good that Milan side’s star striker Marco van Basten was below and see what another red-striped team were up to today by clicking here.
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