In 1987 the Azzurri beat Real Madrid in the European Cup with the Bernabeu disqualified. An advantage? Not exactly…
In that distant time the Champions Cup draw was defined in an integral way. There were no seedings. It was a roll of the dice, no more, no less. Admitted to the competition it was the only club that won the championship in which it participated. The 1987-88 edition featured 32 participating teams. 31 had their respective shield sewn on their chest, while 32nd place rightfully belonged to the winning team of the previous year, in this specific case Porto. Representing Italy was Maradona’s Napoli – and Careca and Giordano and Bagni and Bruscolotti – who had just won the first historic scudetto in their history. The surprise was enormous – and there were many curses in the Neapolitan language – when the draw followed the whim of the mockery. Real Madrid emerged from the urn, the worst opponent that could have happened.