Casting our eye back over some of the greatest teams that Italian football has ever witnessed, the focus is now on the Juventus side that dominated the domestic game between 1980 and 1986.
Over this time, the Turin giants trophy cabinet was host to four league titles, a Coppa Italia, a European Cup Winners’ Cup, a European Cup, a European Super Cup and an Intercontinental title. They also went very close to securing even more titles by finishing runners up in the league and the European Cup on one occasion each.
Entering the 80s, Juventus were beginning to build a formidable squad of Italian talent under the astute management of the wily Giovanni Trappatoni. Adding to this homegrown talent, Irishman Liam Brady was brought in from Arsenal in the summer of 1980 for over £500,000 which was a very large sum for the time. He proved to be just the kind of player that Juve were missing as he fitted seamlessly into the Italian game and remains a hugely popular figure in Turin to this day.
The team clicked instantly that season and went on to secure the Serie A title in fine fashion and finished the season two points clear of closest challengers Roma. An unbeaten run that stretched over the final two months of the season was enough to spark celebration among the Bianconeri faithful. They were beaten in the semi finals of both the Coppa Italia and the UEFA Cup that year but it was enough to halt the excellent start they had made to the decade.
Season 1981/82 proved to be a crucial one for Juventus as they set about to attempt to achieve not only their second successive title but to become the first Italian side to have their jerseys graced with two stars (to signify 20 league championships). As it happened, the title race proved to be an even closer one than the previous year with Juve being pushed all the way to the final day by Tuscan side Fiorentina.
It took a tense 1-0 victory away to Catanzaro to secure Juve’s 20th title with Liam Brady, who knew that he would be sold in the summer to make way for Michel Platini as Italian rules dicatated teams could only include one foreign player in their squad, proving his consumate professionalism by stepping up to slot home the cruical penalty that retained the title. Brady moved to Sampdoria that summer as Platini arrived from St Etienne. He would go on to become a legend in the black and white stripes.
Platini’s influence was all over Juve for the next season but La Vecchia Signora could not secure their third league title in a row although he himself did manage to secure his first of three Ballon d’Or triumphs in Italy. However, Juve’s power over the Italian national side was plain to see during the summer in Spain as the Azzurri won a third World Cup with no fewer than six Juventus players picking up winners medals.
Goalkeeper Dino Zoff, defenders Gaetano Scirea, Claudio Gentile and Antonio Cabrini, midfielder Marco Tardelli and striker Paolo Rossi. Each player played a vital role for La Nazionale in their stunning success. However the players could not add to their medal haul the following season because, as well as losing out on the Scudetto, they went down by one goal in the European Cup final to Hamburg.
There was one piece of silverware that the Bianconeri did manage to secure though as the Coppa Italia made its way to Turin to give the Zebrette faithful something to cheer that season.
Spurred on by losing out both at home and in Europe, the Old Lady were determined to put things right the following year and they certainly did just that. In Serie A they were once again pushed all the way to the final day by a very good Roma side but they managed to squeak past the Giallorossi in the end despite defeat on the final day.
Continental success also followed as the Cup Winners’ Cup was won in style as goals from Beniamino Vignola and Zbigniew Boniek gave them victory in the final over Porto. The legendary Gateano Scirea was in unbelievable form for Juve that year and is rightly regarded as one of the greatest defenders Italy has ever produced and the fact that he never received a red card in his career proves that nobody could read a game as well as the Juve sweeper. He was tragically killed in a car crash in Poland in 1989 but is still remembered in Turin today. The defence stability that Scirea provided in front of goal was helped by Platini’s fine form at the other end as he hit 20 goals that year to become Capocannoniere.
The next season 1984/85 was to be the most bittersweet season in Juve history. The Bianconeri sacrificed success in the Scudetto race to achieve their long-time goal of winning the European Cup and managed to achieve the feat but their triumph was overshadowed by tragedy in the Final against Liverpool at Heysel Stadium in Brussels.
A Platini penalty was enough to secure a 1-0 win but the result itself was rendered meaningless after a stand collapsed before kick-off which killed 39 supporters, 32 of whom were Juventus fans, and injured hundreds more. For fear of inciting more trouble, it was decided the game had to be played but the victory paled in comparison to what had happened.
The fans who passed away that night in 1985 will never be forgotten by those who attended that night or who have links with Italian football. Juve also went on to win the Intercontinental Cup on penalties over Argentinos Juniors in Tokyo that season.
Juve’s golden period of the 80s was to end the same way it began: with victory, before they made way for the emergence of a strong Milan side. Giovanni Trappatoni also left at the end of that season to make way for Rino Marchesi and he left the side in triumph as he led Juve to another Scudetto triumph.
After going out of the European Cup at the quarter final stage to Barcelona, the Old Lady were able to concentrate solely on Serie A and this was vital as it saw them finish strongly to win the title by four points over Roma, who were a constant thorn in the side of Juve for much of their successful era.
Were it not for Trappatoni, Platini, Scirea, Tardelli, Rossi et al then this article could very easily have been titled Roma of the 80s instead. It shows how strong the Bianconeri were at the time though that they managed to constantly get one over on such a strong side. You cannot argue with success and this is exactly what Juventus managed to achieve in this phenomenal run of the 80s. Nobody can argue that this Juventus side were one of the finest in the history of calcio.
Great article, I long to see for a Juve side as dominant as that squad of the 80s. Forza Juve