Have a question here, will really appreciate it if someone can help me.
I'm looking for the squad number for season 1996/1997 and I can't seem to find the number assigned to these two players :
1. Vincenzo Maiolo
2. Francesco de Francesco
Looks like they're both Primavera player since both only played in 1 single game that season, the Copa Italia game vs Reggiana. Scoured the internet but so far no luck.
Have a question here, will really appreciate it if someone can help me.
I'm looking for the squad number for season 1996/1997 and I can't seem to find the number assigned to these two players :
1. Vincenzo Maiolo
2. Francesco de Francesco
Looks like they're both Primavera player since both only played in 1 single game that season, the Copa Italia game vs Reggiana. Scoured the internet but so far no luck.
In the run-up to the release of Issue Ten on 9th September, we will be offering you a sneak peek at a couple of excerpts of articles from the forthcoming issue. Our second excerpt is from Miguel Delaney, who has tackled the Milan v Benfica European Cup final of 1963 for our regular ‘Greatest Games’ section.
After a few seconds of silence, the issue that has simmered for years is finally brought up. It’s the 24th anniversary of the 1963 European Cup final and, in order to commemorate the occasion, the Italian state broadcaster RAI have gathered Cesare Maldini, Mario Coluna and the renowned journalist Gianni Mina into a studio to watch and discuss AC Milan’s 2-1 win over Benfica at Wembley. The panel have just seen the pivotal moment in the 59th minute, when Gino Pivatelli fouled Coluna and (to?) put him out of the game. The incident didn’t just reduce Benfica to 10 men in the absence of substitutions, it removed their most influential player. In a period of perceived attacking innocence, Coluna was the architect who gave the defending European champions clear direction and design. Now, the question is how much direction and design lay behind the foul.
So, Mina eventually broaches it.
“Awful challenge, eh? Lads, after 24 years, can we say whether that foul was ordered or not?”
Maldini, who was captaining Milan from centre-half that day, is insistent: “Absolutely not. Clearly it was a foul, but…”
An agitated Coluna cuts him off, pointing at the screen as a translator relays his words.
“Look how far away the ball is. Pivatelli got nowhere near it!”
“Coluna said it decided the game,” Mina interjects.
Undeniably.
The game itself, meanwhile, did more than decide that season’s European Cup. It was one of those exceedingly rare individual fixtures that distinctly divided eras in the competition’s history; a meeting of two ultimately dominant teams at opposite points of their cycle.
Because of the improbability of so many elements aligning — right down to the luck of the draw — there have only really been three such clutch contests in 58 years of the competition.
In the 1972-73 quarter-final, a fully formed Ajax brutally illustrated to Bayern Munich just who the continent’s best team were. Many of the German players cited that resounding 4-0 defeat as the most traumatic match of their careers, but also the final lesson that transformed them from domestic champions into European champions. After that elimination, Bayern immediately embarked on their own three-in-a-row. Four years before that, Milan had much the same effect on a more callow Ajax by beating them 4-1 in the 1969 showpiece.
In 1963, though, it was a nascent Milan that showed much greater savvy than the reigning champions Benfica. That wasn’t the only aspect that marked this match apart. It was also unique in the manner that one moment so distilled all of the defining traits of those eras and those sides, effectively bringing two decades down to a single kick.
In that, Pivatelli’s foul was as layered as it was lasting. Because, even if an injury was not intended, it was the ultimate consequence of Milan’s distinctive approach.
Their manager Nereo Rocco had specifically detailed Pivatelli — a notional wing-forward — to shackle the playmaker. Moreover, he had dropped the prolific Paolo Barison in order to do so. Never before at such a vaunted level had a team so conspicuously compromised their existing attacking approach. It perfectly illustrated Rocco’s new pragmatism.
After eight years of free-scoring European Cups in which creators like Coluna had space in which to innovate, a more calculating breed of team and coach were now seeking to shut them down. Innocent attacking had started to give way to a singeing cynicism. The Pivatelli foul did not just symbolise a new era; it set the template for it.
Wembley was witnessing the rise of catenaccio. First, Rocco had to figure how to bring about the fall of Benfica.
How the Belgrade fog saved the great AC Milan team of 1988-89 AC Milan in the 1990s were one of the greatest teams, but things could have been different but for a foggy night 25 years ago
How the Belgrade fog saved the great AC Milan team of 1988-89 AC Milan in the 1990s were one of the greatest teams, but things could have been different but for a foggy night 25 years ago
Completely restructured and renovated thanks to the backing of Silvio Berlusconi, Milanello is today one of the most important, prestigious and state-of-the-art sporting complexes in Europe.
Situated on a hill at an attitude of 300 metres near Varese and only 50 km from Milan, the centre is easily reached from the motorway that runs around the lakes. Originally opened in 1963, it is surrounded by a 160,000 m² green oasis that includes a large pine forest and a lake located between Carnago, Cassano Magnano and Cairate.
The exact dividing line between these local areas cuts right through the middle of the dressing room.
Milanello today represents an important asset not only for the Rossoneri, but for the entire Italian football movement.
This was the objective of Andrea Rizzoli, who decided to build the complex.
The continuity was thus then assured by Silvio Berlusconi, who had always wanted to make available a complex designed according to the needs of coaches and players.
The Structure
The Milanello structure has always been at the forefront in terms of training facilities and has been used on a number occasions by the Italian Football Federation ahead of important international tournaments including the European Championships in 1988, 1996 and 2000.
Milanello has six regulation-size natural grass pitches, a synthetic pitch (35m. x 30), and another covered synthetic pitch (42m. x 24), there is also an outdoor grass pitch known as “the cage” due to the fact that the playing field is surrounded by a 2.30 m. wall where there is a 2,50 m. high fence.
Inside “the cage” play continues without stopping, the ball is always moving in order to increase the speed of the game.
In the wood there is a 1,200 m. long path set out at different gradients and during the season it is used for physical training (jogging and cycling) and for the rehabilitation of injured players.
The main structure of the center is made up of a building with two floors (and the basement) where there are offices, the players’ rooms, the main hall, the TV room, the billiard room; the bar, the kitchen, two dining rooms, the press room, the meeting room, the laundry room and the medical center.
Next to the main building there is a "guest house", where some of the youth players who have arrived from other parts of Italy or from abroad live. They attend school in the morning and train in the afternoon.
The Dressing Room
A separate building from the main area houses two dressing rooms (one for the First Team, the other for Youth side) and a modern gym with the latest Technogym equipment; the real centre-piece of the facility.
The Gym
The completely, newly renovated gym offers the players the high-tech Technogym brand solutions. The gym was refurbished a few years ago, adding the latest Technogym equipment, aesthetically upgraded by Technogym’s Interior Design team.
The latest cardiovascular machines are equipped with the new interactive VISIOweb display to connect to the internet, TV and iPod during training and the Pruestrength line of equipment has been specially designed for the needs of athletes to allow muscle-building capacity for Massimiliano Allegri’s players.
Today, all international observers consider Milanello to be the number one sports centre in the world.
The national side have used it often ahead of World Cup and European Championships matches.
The facilities and state-of-the-art services promote sport that meets the criteria of the highest quality.
FACILITIES FOR PRESS AND MEDIA
The latest changes to the structure relate to the field of communication: 3,000 metre-cables have been installed in order to place Milan Channel – the thematic club channel that broadcasts all the news about the club to fans - cameras at strategic points. The Sports Centre also has two press rooms equipped to host press conferences and interviews with journalists.
HOW TO REACH THE SPORTS CENTRE
From Malpensa: take the motorway towards Varese (A8). Exit Solbiate Arno: follow the signs for Carnago and then for Milanello.
From Linate: take the east or west ring-road towards Como – Varese – Chiasso – Malpensa, follow the signs for Varese (A8). Exit Solbiate Arno: follow the signs for Carnago and then for Milanello.
Car from other parts of Italy: take the motorway towards the Lakes, follow the signs for Varese (A8). Follow the signs for Varese (A8). Exit Solbiate Arno: follow the signs for Carnago and then for Milanello.
There is no public transport available to the Sports Centre.