Great Calcio Sides – Hellas Verona 1984/85

In 1984, Verona was more famous for its old ampitheatre and the balcony of Romeo and Juliet but all that was to change in the 1984/85 Serie A season with the arrival of Hellas Verona who won one of the most surprising yet deserved championships in the history of Italian football.

They had only been promoted two years previously and had fared very well upon their return to the top flight having finished fourth and then sixth and had already shown they were an excellent team. However, nobody in the country could have anticipated what was to come that season as the Gialloblu stunned the nation to win the one and only Scudetto in their history.

At the start of the campaign, manager Osvaldo Bagnoli brought in two foreign players who were to have a major impact on the destination of the championship. Defender come midfielder Hans-Peter Briegel was brought in from Kaiserslautern and Danish striker Preben Elkjaer signed from Lokeren. He was to be the focal point of the Verona attack for the coming season and scored some vital goals on the way to the title. It seemed they were the missing pieces of the jigsaw at the Stadio Bentegodi which already had many players of high quality in the ranks. There were no egos in their dressing room as Bagnoli had taken great care to assemble a side which would work hard for each other but one that was also capable of taking points off any side in the country on their day.

Betweren the sticks, goalkeeper Claudio Garella was an extremely reliable net minder and along with a back four that consisted of captain Roberto Tircella, Domenico Volpati, Luciano Marangon and Mauro Ferroni that only conceded 19 goals all season. In midfield, the preferred starting players were the tough-tackling Briegel, former Juve winger Pietro Fanna out wide with Luciano Bruni on the other wing. Completing the midfield was the wonderful Antonio Di Gennaro who was all over the field, helping out in defence when needed and orchestrating the side’s attacks. In the forward line, Elkjaer was joined by Giuseppe Galderisi who was to finish the season as Hellas’ top scorer with 11 goals.

So when the opening day of the season arrived in September 1984 there was a great deal of buzz and attention around the Stadio Bentegodi as the media flocked en masse to Verona. However, they were not there to see the home side who were dismissed as being simply the side-act as Napoli arrived in town with their new star and then-record signing Diego Maradona. They were to witness the start of something special however as Hellas shocked the Argentine and his side. Briegel kept Maradona quiet during the game as he followed him all over the field and not giving him a moment to rest and it was he himself who popped up to open the scoring early on before Galderisi scored a quickfire second. Napoli pulled one back in the second half before Di Gennaro completed the goalscoring late on to put the unfancied Hellas Verona top pf the table after the opening weekend of fixtures. They would not move from that position for the rest of the season.

They faced their first big challenge to their lead at the top when Juventus arrived in Verona early in the campaign. However, the Bianconeri were swept aside in a powerful display from the hosts and the victory remains memorable for one particular goal from Elkjaer. The striker picked up the ball outside the box and, while running at the Juve defence, he lost his boot in a tackle but continued to drive forward before slotting the ball home with his foot without the boot to help his side on their way to an important victory. Juve’s city neighbours Torino, who were also in excellent form that season, were next up in week 10 for Hellas as they travelled to Turin knowing that defeat would put the Granata to the top of the table. However, Bagnoli’s side came away with a massive 2-1 win as fans began to dream of a most unlikely triumph.

However, fans were brought back down to earth with a bump as their team slipped up with two goalless draws against Milan and Como before a trip to Avellino early in 1985 brought about their first defeat of the season to give other teams hope again as the Verona tifosi began to worry that it was all about to slip away. Elkjaer was injured for the game and Galderisi suspended and without their star strikers, Hellas went down to a 2-1 defeat courtesy of Angelo Colombo’s late goal. They followed that defeat with a 0-0 draw in Naples which allowed Torino and Inter to sneak back into the Scudetto race. The Mastini were starting to struggle and needed a big win to turn their fortunes back around and keep themselves at the Serie A summit. Locked level on points with Inter going into week 17, it was to be a crucial week for both teams. The Nerazzurri slipped up against Avellino in a shock draw which put Hellas back into pole position with a win at Ascoli thanks to strikes from Galderisi and Luigi Sacchetti.

However, the press were beginning to doubt Verona’s staying power after a testing few weeks for them and their fitness and energy was called into question ahead of their trip to the north east to play Udinese. That myth was to be dispelled immediately in one of the games of the season. With a series of tough games following their trip to the Friuli, a win was essential to ensure they maintained their one point lead at the top. Briegel, Galderisi and Elkjaer all scored within the first 20 minutes to give them a 3-0 lead. However, Hellas relaxed on their lead perhaps believing the game was won and not long after the start of the second half the Zebrette had amazingly pulled the score back to 3-3. However, mere minutes later Elkjaer and Briegel had scored once more to give Hellas a 5-3 win and ensure they stayed top ahead of a home tie with Inter the following week.

Inter took a first half lead through Alessandro Altobelli but Hellas rallied as they had done so many times that season and Briegel’s second half header was enough to give the Gialloblu an important point. That was followed up with another crucial draw against Juventus the following week before a big draw against Roma kept them top. Then, the unlikely dream began to take shape towards the end of March. A 3-0 thrashing of Cremonese preceded a draw against Sampdoria as Inter drew in the Milan derby before losing twice on the trot to Juventus and Udinese to put Hellas Verona in pole position. With six games remaining, they sat six points clear at the top and began to seriously think that the title could be theirs.

However, just when it seemed the title was theirs to be lost, it all began to go wrong. Torino arrived in Verona and stunned the hosts as Aldo Serena and Walter Schachner scored the goals that handed Hellas only their second, and final, defeat of the season. A draw at the San Siro followed against Milan but a huge win over Lazio allowed Verona to travel to Atalanta in their penultimate game knowing that even a draw would secure them the Scudetto. The home side took the lead before the break to leave the visitors fearing the worst. However, just minutes after the restart Verona’s great Dane Elkjaer was on hand to score an all-important equaliser. The away fans had to endure an agonising second half after that but eventually the referee blew for full time and unfashionable and unfancied Hellas Verona had won one of the most suprising Scudetto triumphs of all time.

For the first time in 15 years the Italian championship had gone outside the cities Turin, Milan and Rome. It was an amazing achievement from the side from Verona made all the more impressive by the fact that the title had been won by such a small, tightly-knit group of players (just 17 different players featured for the side that season). Hellas fans dreaming of the dawn of a new age in Italy in which they would take their place among the big boys were to be sadly disappointed. They finished a surprising 10th the following year and were knocked out of the European Cup by compatriots Juventus. Many of their important players began to leave the club after that. Garella joined Napoli and went on to win the title with them as did Pietro Fanna at Inter. Briegel left to join Sampdoria in 1986 and Elkjaer left two years after that. The side had slowly started to break up and by 1990 they were relegated to Serie B and today sit in Serie C1. It has been a long way down for Hellas especially as city rivals Chievo now go from strength to strength. However, they will always have the memories of that glorious season in the mid 80s when the shocked a nation by winning the Scudetto.

Follow Padraig Whelan (@PWhelan88) on Twitter