The Anglo-Italian Affair

If there’s one thing we love above all else here at Jumpers For Goalposts Towers then it’s definitely representative fixtures that aren’t proper internationals like in this piece here. So we decided to go a few years further and look at a time when Serie A and the Football League decided to take it outside and see which league was best once and for all. 

The year is 1991 and the footballing landscape is beginning to change. The English game is basking in its post-Italia 90 glory and (some) Football League clubs have been allowed back into European competition. 

The Italians were still laying claim to Serie A being the best league in the world and by January 1991 it was increasingly difficult to disagree as the league continued to attract some of the best players in the world, some of which were on display in this match. 

Matches between the Football League and Serie A weren’t uncommon but at the same time, there hadn’t been one since 1964 when the Italians triumphed 1-0 in Milan. 

Fast forward to 1991 and the Serie A side had a very continental flavour to it with Germany’s World Cup winning captain Lothar Matthaus skippering the Italian league side. Dutch legend and Euro 1988 winner Marco van Basten was also part of the side alongside further imports Branco, Careca, Aldair, Bosnian David Jozic of Cessna and Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko during his brief stay with Sampdoria. 

Fresh from captaining West Germany to Italia 90 glory, Lothar Matthaus led the Serie A charge in the January 1991 clash with the Football League. 

Despite the foreign spine of the Serie A team, there were still plenty of home-grown talentt on show. Goalkeeper Giovanni Galli was once of AC Milan and had been Italy’s first-choice stopper at the Mexico 86 World Cup. At the time of this game, Gabriele Pin was playing in the heart of Lazio’s midfield but had already won a Scudetto with Juventus and would later assist Parma in their 90s heyday as they won the UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup. 

The talented Italians weren’t restricted to the subs bench either. Gianluigi Lentini was only a year away from becoming the world’s most expensive footballer while there was also a shy retiring fella by the name of Paolo Di Canio amongst the subs, we’re not quite sure what became of him…

Given that the game between Serie A and the Barclays league took place on the same night as the majority of the ties in the fifth round of the League Cup meant that there was a heavy Arsenal and Liverpool presence in the Barclays League team. In fact, of the sixteen-man squad only five plied their trade outside of the red half of Merseyside or North London. Neville Southall was the only starter to not play for Arsenal or Liverpool with Steve Bull (Wolves), Mark Bowen (Norwich), Keith Curle (Wimbledon) and Dean Saunders (Derby County) on the bench. In sharp contrast to the cosmopolitan nature of their Serie A counterparts, only the Swedish pair of Arsenal's Anders Limpar and Liverpool's Glenn Hysen were the only players from outside the UK and Ireland in the Barclays team. 

Arsenal's Anders Limpar was one of just two foreign players in the Barclays League XI. 

As for the game itself, the match was played out in front of 18,000 at Napoli's Stadio San Paolo (the site of England's World Cup quarter-final win over Cameroon just a few months prior) and saw the Italian league comprehensively sweep the Barclays League 3-0. 

Serie A took the lead in the 25th minute when they were able to punish some poor defending from the Football League. Glenn Hysen failed to control a simple pass from his Liverpool team-mate Steve Nicol and the loose ball ended up at the feet of Careca, while the Brazilian's shot was initially parried by Neville Southall, Marco van Basren was on hand to slot the ball into the net. 

Less than two minutes later, Hysen's partner at centre-back and captain for the evening Mark Wright was far too casual on the ball after receiving a short pass from the Swede and lost possession to Careca who outmuscled Wright and surged forward before rolling the ball past a helpless Southall to double Serie A's advantage. 

The final and decisive blow came in the second half as a result of more poor defending from the Barclays League. After Mark Wright failed to deal with Branco's attacking threat (in today's VAR era Wright would probably have conceded a penalty for his rather desperate challenge) the ball broke to substitute and Pisa midfielder Diego Simeone (yes that one) who lashed the ball home from just inside the penalty area. 

Diego Simeone (before he invented 'shithousery') scored the third and final goal of the game. 

And that very much was that, the final whistle blew on the match and indeed the concept itself. As the players trudged off at the end of the game they were also closing the door on a certain part of football history. It was the last time an inter-league contest took place. 

The format was briefly resurrected in 1998 when a Football League side made up of under-21 players took on a similarly aged side from Serie B. The teams first met at The Valley and drew 0-0 before a second game in Treviso ended in the same scoreline. 

Once again, I hope this is a format that very much remains in the past. Not because I wouldn't want to see the Serie A take on the Premier League, it's just because the build-up and hubris surrounding the theoretical game would be enough to make me and probably some of you to cringe to death! 

That's your lot for this week's Jumpers For Goalposts action. I'll be back next Tuesday with another look back at some classic football. In the meantime, chuck me a follow on X @DanBarker2802.