In the summer they won the Intertoto cup and, now, they have decided to play it. On the bench sits a guy with a bulky appearance and a gruff face, specialized in exalting his fantasists: his name is Carletto Mazzonejust had to say goodbye to Roberto Baggio, but he welcomed Beppe Gentlemen.
In Bologna – while it explodes outside the summer of 1998 – they make a half revolution. Around the key players – Antonioli between the posts, Morocco directing traffic in the middle, the gigantic Kenneth Anderson to stand out in front – Klas Ingesson from Bari, the defenders Bia, Boselli and Rinaldi, the goalkeeper Roccati and Sanchez also arrive to replenish the squad, an intuition taken from Montepellier. And then there they are the Paganins, the Paramatti, the Nervos, the Kolyvanovs and Eribert, who will later be discovered to be Luciano. The balloon laborer pressed into the European elevator. The province that erupts in the desire for revenge, like today, with Zirkzee and his brothers.
That gallop starts from very far away. Thirty-second of the final. There is it in front Sporting CP, but between the first leg and the second leg (0-2 and 2-1) Nervo, Eriberto and Signori subdue him easily. Same music with him Slavia Prague, tamed and kicked out once again thanks to the collective, of course, which united around the blasts of Signori (twice between the home and away matches), Ingesson and Cappioli (2-1 and 0-2). Here Mazzone gets up from the bench and rejoices wildly in front of the Rai microphones. He understands that the wind is pushing in the right direction.
Another round, level rising. Opposite is the munificent Betis Seville, the one featuring the glittering Brazilian Denilson and a bunch of other talents. Bologna, however, shrugs and demolishes it with a sharp 4-1 at home (Fontolan twice, Kolyvanov, Eriberto): a football nest egg that allows them to resist the return of the green and whites, unable to go beyond the 1-0 at home.
Now, like today, the city dreams and fluctuates beyond its own possibilities. So too Guy Lacombe’s Lyon it cannot intimidate a group that is experiencing Europe as if it were their own backyard. At Dall’Ara an unappealable 3-0 (double Signori, then Binotto) arrives which leads straight towards qualification for the semi-finals. In France it’s very tough, Olympique scores two and Bologna none, but the third never arrives and Mazzone is among the top four in the UEFA cup, starting with the Intertoto.
Now it’s the turn of the Marseille by Rolland Courbis, a solid team behind with Blanc and Gallas, armed by the prodigious magician Robert Pires in midfield and our Fabrizio Ravanelli in attack. However, Bologna approached without fear and, in the first leg, covered the Velodrome with charismatic imposition of the game. The result, however, remains stuck at 0-0 and everything must be decided in the return match at the Dall’Ara. In front of almost 36 thousand spectators the rossoblu passed almost immediately, with a fireball from Paramatti, but the French caught them again with a penalty obtained by Ravanelli and kicked glacially by Laurent Blanc.
The result of 1-1, due to the horrible rule of the goal that counts as a double away from home, rewarded the guests (then disintegrated 3-0 in the final by Parma).
The European campaign stops here, but that Bologna of miracles remains there like a drawer of time, to be reopened to remember that then, as today, even the province can afford to dream.
