The day the ‘Catenaccio’ died

Catenaccio is a tactical system in football that involves strong defense, hard tackles, and the use of a particular role player, the sweeper, who is positioned just ahead of the goalkeeper. In this way the sweeper (or libero in Italian) recovers balls lost by his teammates or helps in the double marking if necessary. It was used largely and successfully in the 1960s by Italian clubs such as Inter, Milan and Triestina.

Perhaps no one knows but catenaccio is dead. Yes, dead. Exactly on May 25, 1967, final of the Inter Milan-Celtic European Cup in Lisbon. The great Inter de Herrera, winner of two European Cups (1964, 1965), tried to win the third against Los Bhoys. After Mazzola’s penalty in the 7th minute, Inter retired in catenaccio as they did in the winning 1965 final against Benfica. The Lisbon crowd is resigned to seeing Celtic’s hopeless attempts to pierce through Inter’s defensive barrier for the remaining 83 minutes. But not this time, not against Celtic. For Inter it is the beginning of the end: Celtic destroy the Italian defense by trying 39 goals, missing a penalty and scoring two goals that allow Celtic to win the Cup. Only thanks to Italian goalkeeper Sarti, Inter do not leave the field with a humiliating marker. After this memorable match, the Celtic players, called Lisbon Lions by the local press, entered the legend by winning a European title for the first time in British football history, playing one of the greatest finals ever seen and killing Catenaccio. , even if nobody mentions it. what.