😱 Northern Ireland cost us a World Cup: brawl and invasion 😡 | OneFootball

Italy will face Northern Ireland at home on March 26 (here's the analysis of our opponent): a "do or die" match to reach the Playoff final.

It's a situation we've seen before, a déjà-vu that ended badly for Italy: a 2-1 defeat against Northern Ireland that cost us the 1958 World Cup, also due to a massive brawl and unimaginable events in today's football.

Five make the call-ups, but who coaches?

Italy in the '50s achieved good results internationally, but the Azzurri struggled: in the 1954 World Cup, we exited in the 1st round, while Italian teams (Fiorentina and Milan) reached the Champions Cup final in 1957 and '58, only to be beaten by Real Madrid.

For the 1958 World Cup, the National team was entrusted to five men among League officials, Serie A presidents, and former players (Angelo Schiavio, a Bologna icon) to make the call-ups: the team was coached by Alfredo Foni, a two-time Italian champion with Inter. Many heads thinking, too many, some would say later.

In the qualifying group, we faced Portugal (still far from being the great team of the '60s) and Northern Ireland, which turned out to be the surprise of the round.

Northern Ireland lost to us at the Olimpico but then won 3-0 in Portugal, while we lost 3-0 to the Portuguese in Lisbon. A disaster we could remedy by beating Northern Ireland again.

We don't like the referee: match canceled!

The time came to go to Belfast: December 4, 1957. The fog over the United Kingdom was very thick and the Hungarian referee Zsolt was stuck in London. His primary job wasn't even refereeing: he was a manager at the Budapest opera, but the international career wasn't closed to him.

The next day the weather didn't change, and Northern Ireland suggested changing the referee: Mitchell was proposed, but he was Northern Irish. The conflict of interest didn't sit well with the Azzurri, who refused to play. 

Thus, the match was downgraded: from official to friendly, to satisfy the spectators who had already bought tickets. Paying for a crucial match and then watching a friendly? The audience - obviously - received the National team very poorly.

The match is a brawl + massive invasion

The two teams "fought" from start to finish and the reports of the time attacked each other: Ferrario (Juventus defender) and Chiappella (Fiorentina legend) certainly kicked everyone a bit, and so did the Northern Irish.

Every foul by the home team was cheered by the crowd, at the end there was a pitch invasion and fans ran to catch the Italians, so much so that the radio commentator Nicolò Carosio commented live: "They're hitting our players.” The match ended 2-2, but the result didn't matter.

The police charged the crowd with batons to quell the tension. A match without official value became "The Battle of Belfast": just the prelude to the real defeat.

Italy indeed returned to play on January 15, 1958, in Belfast: this time the original referee was present, and the Azzurri lost 2-1. No controversy, just pure merit of Northern Ireland.

Whose fault was it?

The blame was placed on the coach: Alfredo Foni, famous for winning with the catenaccio in Serie A but who relied on an outdated 3-2-2-3 (WM) in the National team, interpreted by South American oriundi on a cold January day in Northern Ireland.

Too many oriundi (very strong, by the way: Ghiggia, Schiaffino, Da Costa, and Montuori), too few Italian champions (Boniperti and Pascutti were still in their careers), chaos in the call-ups, interference from the press, or a sense of revenge from the hosts? The truth lies in the middle.

At the time (and not only), the blame was bounced from one department to another. The result? No World Cup... and at that moment, it was only the first time.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.

📸 Keystone