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

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

This is 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 events unimaginable in today's football.

Five make the selections, but who coaches?

Italy in the '50s achieves good results internationally but the Azzurri struggle: if in the 1954 World Cup we exit in the 1st round, Italian teams (Fiorentina and Milan) reach the Champions Cup final in 1957 and '58, only beaten by Real Madrid.

For the 1958 World Cup, the National team is entrusted to 5 men among League managers, Serie A presidents, and former players (Angelo Schiavio, a Bologna icon) to make the selections: coaching the team is Alfredo Foni, a two-time Italian champion with Inter. Many heads thinking, too many, some would later say.

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

Northern Ireland loses to us at the Olimpico but then wins 3-0 in Portugal's home, while we lose 3-0 to the Lusitanians in Lisbon. A disaster we can remedy by beating Northern Ireland again.

We don't like the referee: match canceled!

The time comes to go to Belfast: December 4, 1957. The fog over the United Kingdom is very thick and Hungarian referee Zsolt is stuck in London. As a primary job, he's not even a referee: he's a manager at the Budapest opera, but the international career is not off-limits to him.

The next day the weather doesn't change and Northern Ireland suggests changing the referee: Mitchell is proposed, but he's Northern Irish. The conflict of interest doesn't sit well with the Azzurri, who refuse to play. 

For this reason, the match is downgraded: from official to friendly, to satisfy the spectators who had already bought tickets. Paying for a crucial game and then watching a friendly? The audience - obviously - receives the National team very poorly.

The match is a brawl + mass invasion

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

Every foul by the home team is cheered by the crowd, at the end there's a pitch invasion and fans run to get the Italians, so much so that radio commentator Nicolò Carosio comments live: "They're hitting our players.” The match ends 2-2 but the result doesn't matter.

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

Italy indeed plays again on January 15, 1958, in Belfast: this time the original referee is present and the Azzurri lose 2-1. No controversy but pure merit of Northern Ireland.

Whose fault was it?

The blame is placed on the coach: Alfredo Foni, famous for winning with the catenaccio in Serie A but who in the National team relied on an outdated 3-2-2-3 (WM) 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 selections, press interference or a sense of revenge from the home team? 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.

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