18 November 1962 – Municipal Stadium of Turin
JUVENTUS-MILAN 1-0
Juventus: Anzolin; Castano and Salvadore; Emoli, Leoncini and Sarti; Crippa, Del Sol, Miranda, Sivori and Stacchini. Coach: Amaral.
Milan: Ghezzi; David and Root; Pivatelli, Maldini and Trapattoni; Del Vecchio, Sani, Altafini. Rivera and Barison. Coach: Rocco.
Referee: Jonni from Macerata.
Scorer: Sivori in the 36th minute.
Cold and fog do not keep the general public away, who storm the steps of the Town Hall, filling it to capacity. Juventus starts on the offensive, supported by a stubborn Del Sol and a Sivori in form like we haven’t seen for a long time, but the Rossoneri defence, centered on the great Cesare Maldini, demonstrates confidence and a notable ability to relaunch. In fact, it was Milan who created the first real scoring opportunity, with an action set up by Sani and continued by the leading tandem Del Vecchi and Altafini. Anzolin, forced out, anticipates the Brazilian, who launches into the net. Juventus’ reaction was feeble and ended with two shots from Sivori just wide. In the quarter of an hour, Rivera shows off his uncommon technical skills, launching Altafini with precision, preceded by the timely and confident intervention of Billy Salvadore.
From that moment on, the man who would soon rise to the rank of main protagonist of the match begins to appear: Luis Del Sol. The Postman starts from his own area and, having reached the limit of the opponent’s area after having dribbled past numerous opponents, engages Ghezzi in a difficult save on the ground. The Spaniard begins to engage in a duel with his marker, the Brazilian Sani, who will soon have to give up: Del Sol proves, in fact, that he has at least one edge more than him. And the dynamics of the meeting will be decisively affected. In the meantime, we can also see the happy streak of center forward Miranda, the man with a lightning shot who, despite not moving much, always represents a big danger for the opposing defense, being able to shoot from any distance and position. Miranda himself, known as Mirandone, in the 25th minute, hits a ball served to him by Crippa into the goal. The ball, hit badly, goes high over the crossbar.
At the half-hour mark, the territorial superiority exercised by the Bianconeri becomes more consistent and Anzolin remains idle for a long time observing his attacking teammates, engaged in a real forcing effort. Crippa shoots violently and hits Maldini in the temple, who remains off the field stunned for a few minutes. Then a shot from Miranda following a pass from Del Sol grazes the upright. It is the prelude to the decisive action of the goal: an admirable action in terms of execution and timing in the conclusion. From Miranda to Del Sol who, with an irresistible action, gets almost to the baseline and lets off a sharp cross. Ghezzi tries in vain to intercept the ball which, instead, ends up in Sivori, who crushes it with his head, sending it unstoppably into the bag: 1-0, and it’s the 36th minute.
At the start of the second half the Juventus team changed their game structure slightly, moving Del Sol back to the midfield line and having Crippa carry out interdiction duties in midfield. The Rossoneri midfield benefits from this, especially Sani who manages to acquire greater freedom of action. Rivera and Del Vecchio created a couple of scoring opportunities, all excellently neutralized by Anzolin. The fear of the Juventus fans is that the Rossoneri are on the verge of spreading: the confidence with which the Juventus defense controls the opposing attacks seems more apparent than effective and the situation risks worsening after half an hour, when Benito Sarti seriously injures his knee in a tackle on Altafini and has to leave the field.
Reduced to ten men, Juventus made a formidable surge and found, as if by magic, the freshness and incisiveness of the first forty-five minutes of the game. Amaral’s team came very close to doubling their lead first with Sivori, who saw his violent shot blocked by the post, and then with Emoli, whose strike from very close range was miraculously saved by Ghezzi. This brief but consistent reaction takes away from the AC Milan fans any residual hope of obtaining a draw and the subsequent progress of the match confirms the splendid condition of all the Juventus defenders: from Emoli who had started the championship with little luck and conviction in the unusual role of full-back, to Leoncini always impeccable both in the interdiction and in the construction of the maneuver; from Castano to Salvadore who in the entire match was overtaken on only one occasion by Altafini; finally with Del Sol, who concluded his exhausting effort by playing as a full-back in place of the injured Sarti. Jonni’s final whistle unites winners and losers in one very warm applause.
That year Juventus did not win the championship: at the finish line they were preceded by the Inter of Corso, Jair, Suarez and Sandrino Mazzola who, in April, on the same pitch as the Comunale, erased the Juventus’ premature hopes of a thirteenth championship. But it will still be a wonderful tournament for Juventus, which will entertain its millions of fans and erase the bad memories of the previous championship with high-level performances and prestigious victories. Like that November afternoon, when they beat Milan 1-0.
“EVENING PRESS”
Only a few minutes before the start of the match, Bruno Siciliano learned that he would not take the field wearing the center forward shirt. If, perhaps, the news saddened him at the time, at the end of the match Siciliano had found his smile again: «I was very keen, as is natural, to be on the pitch too – he declared – but I’m not at all disappointed if I was preferred state Miranda: what matters is that Juventus won.” Asked how the last-minute decision was made, he replied that it was Miranda himself who said he could play. «Armando – said Siciliano – changed before everyone else and right here, in the changing rooms, he tried to make some movements in souplesse, to kick the ball with his right foot under the eyes of the doctors and the coach. The ankle didn’t bother him much, and Mr. Amaral no longer had any doubts.” Miranda confirmed that he remained uncertain until a few minutes into the match, and specified that he did not suffer severe pain during the match. The native added that he found Milan to be very strong: of Pivatelli he said: «The Rossoneri midfielder is certainly a tough and decisive player, but that’s how you have to be in a match, and I don’t think at all that Pivatelli exaggerated» . Castano believes that the AC Milan players are no weaker than last year: «Against us they perhaps appeared less skilled in midfield play. It should not be forgotten, however, that Sani, their director, was exhausted by Del Sol’s shots.” Salvadore, while receiving best wishes for his wedding, set for tomorrow in Milan, spoke again about the meeting. He said that the ball was slimy and difficult to control on the Comunale pitch: «This is why, at the beginning, I was fooled a couple of times. However, it seems to me that overall the performance of our defense was more than positive.” We asked Leoncini, who was in charge of marking Rivera, for his opinion on his direct opponent: «I had only played against him once, when the boy was still in Alessandria. Even then he appeared to me as a true champion. You can’t say which of his qualities is better than him: whatever he does, Rivera is very strong.” Sivori spoke with admiration of Trapattoni, an energetic defender but always correct in his interventions.
Finally, the president of Juventus, Eng. Catella, jokingly recalled that more than a month ago he had predicted five consecutive victories for his team and that he had got the predictions right. Today, in fact, is the fifth consecutive success for the Bianconeri. Catella then had words of praise for all the Juventus players, especially for the defenders: «Only twice in the whole match did Milan manage to create scoring opportunities, while they saw almost all their attacking actions blocked even before reach the penalty area. For their part, Juventus could have scored more than once, and it seems to me, therefore, that there is nothing to complain about the result. What is worrying now – he concluded – is Sarti’s injury. However, it doesn’t seem to be a very serious sprain and we hope to have the full-back back in the team soon.”
