What? Again? How? What do I do now? After Roma's incredible win yesterday I thought I'd be safe to go back to Italy and World Cups and 1990. Then Juventus come along and score, and again, and again, and then the unthinkable is about to happen and Juve are going to eliminate Real Madrid after losing the first leg 3-0 at home. And I'm thinking this was not supposed to happen. I was going back to Italia '90 tonight. Now I have to talk about Ronaldo's wonder goal last week meaning nothing. And I'll have to put the question out there: is Juve's win more incredible than Roma's?
Then it's the 90-something minute and Real get a penalty and Gigi Buffon is sent off and Ronaldo scores and Juve are out. And I am sitting in my car, pulled over to see if I should still be rushing home to catch the extra time. No. Instead I go and do something I haven't done for many, many years. I go and buy a Panini World Cup album. And a few packets of stickers.
So back to Nessun Dorma and Notte Magiche. One magical night, or day, was Argentina's "stolen" win against Brazil. The Brazilians had dominated the match and, in boxing terms, were way ahead on point when out of nowhere Claudio Caniggia scored what would be the winner for Argentina. There was added spice to the result years later when Diego Maradona and coach Carlos Bilardo didn't deny that Brazilian defender Branco drank water spiked with a tranquilizer just before the goal, something Branco had suspected at the time when he said he felt dizzy and ill.
The argument rumbled on between players, coaches and administrators for a while. But the Brazilian FA president,Ricardo Teixeira, said that he would never want the result overturned if Fifa found proof of wrongdoing.
"They were better than us on the pitch," he said. "Maradona had a great game and Caniggia scored a beautiful goal."
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