My favorite people have strong character and the ability to overcome tough odds by using hard work and the occasional stroke of genius. All of these qualities also describe the first Juventus team I followed closely as a child. For many that grew up in Italy la Vecchia Signora (the old Lady which is the nickname most used for Juventus) is the first love and I was lucky enough to be 8 years old when Juventus had a great team.

Juventus won the European Cup for the first time in 1985 at Heysel Stadium in Belgium on May 29 1985 against Liverpool. The final featured two of the best teams from the early 80s. Liverpool were the defending champions of the European Cup (which became the Champions League in the mid 90s) and Juventus had made the final in 1983 but lost to Hamburg in one the biggest upsets in football history. By winning the European Cup and then defeating Argentinos Junior in the Intercontinental Cup Juventus became the first club team to ever win all international competitions. 

The game will always be remember for the tragic death of 39 Juventus fans before the game (600 were also injured). The disgraceful actions of the Liverpool fans caused all English teams to be banned from European football competition for 5 years (Liverpool was banned for 10 years but the sentence was later reduced to 6 years), it also ensured that the great Juve team managed by Trapattoni would not get its proper place in football history because the actual game became a footnote to the tragic events in the stands.  The silver lining of these events is the fact that after this tragedy England became very serious about upgrading its stadiums and ending fan violence. The new Juventus stadium, which will open next season, was very much inspired by the current Premier League stadiums and many countries are using the same strategies employed in England to make stadiums a more family oriented destination.

Juventus had built a formidable roster in the late 70s and early 8os, many of its players were also part of the Italy team that won the World Cup in 1982- Dino Zoff, Claudio Gentile, Antonio Cabrini, Gaetano Scirea, Marco Tardelli and Paolo Rossi. The team that lost to Hamburg in 1983 featured all these players as well as Michael Platini and Zibigniew Boniek who were both stars of that World Cup with France and Poland respectively. I personally feel the team from 1983 was arguably the best Juventus team of the modern era, it also featured Roberto Bettega who retired after the game.

Trapattoni had a younger team in 1985, Dino Zoff had retired and he was replaced by Stefano Tacconi and Claudio Gentile was traded to Fiorentina in 1984 replaced by Luciano Favero. The team was a very physical and defensive minded team, Trapattoni was not afraid to let Favero and Brio man mark the opponent’s strikers for the entire day and let Scirea and Cabrini move up the pitch when the situation allowed it.  Juventus was absolutely deadly on counterattacks, Platini’s superior passing skills and Boniek’s speed and dribbling ability were usually a devastating combination for opponents. In my opinion this version of Juventus and the Italy squad of 1982 (and to a lesser extent the Azzurri team that won in 2006) showed how the “catenaccio” strategy could be a very successful strategy especially against team that may have had more talent on the pitch.

Juventus did not face a particularly difficult road in the early stages (Ilves form Finland, Grasshoppers from Switzerland and Sparta Praga were the first 3 opponents) but in the semifinal had to face a Bordeaux team which featured Giresse, Battiston and Tigana three of Platini’s teammates from France. Juve won 3-0 at home in the first league of the semifinal but lost 2-0 the return game.

Liverpool had won 3 European Cups starting in 1977 and in 1983 defeated Roma (a team that featured some players from the 1982 Italy team) in the final. Their team featured some outstanding players like Kenny Dalglish (current manager of the team and arguably the best player in Liverpool’s history), staunch defenders Alan Hansen Steve Nicol  and striker Ian Rush (346 career goals for Liverpool). Liverpool was dominating the European football scene and Juventus was an underdog to win.

Stefano Tacconi-  played in the shadows of two legendary Italian GKs- he replaced Zoff on Juventus when he retired and he was the backup to Zenga for many years for the Azzurri, Tacconi could have been a starter for almost any other national team at the time. Man of the match in the final against Liverpool, and he was very good at making saves with his feet.  Tacconi unfortunately had to play on some very subpar Juventus teams after 1985, he was the captain once Platini and Scirea retired. Similar Player:  Lloris of Lyon. Potential FIFA rating: 81 with 86 for reflexes and 80 for positioning.

Luciano Favero- tough man marker, hardly ever ventured forward. Replaced Claudio Gentile and played in similar fashion. While he did not possess good ball skills or great speed Favero was very versatile, he could play as a RB or CB and played the sweeper role for the last half hour of the Intercontinental Cup when Scirea got hurt. Similar Player: Torricelli who played on Juve in 90s and early 00s. Potential FIFA rating: 79 with 73 for speed 86 for positioning and 63 for crossing.

Antonio Cabrini- one of the key members of the Azzurri squad that won the World Cup in 1982, he is the only player to have missed a penalty kick in a World Cup final. Debuted for the Azzurri in the 1978 WC at the age of 21.Very handsome man, known as the “fidanzato d’Italia” (Italy’s boyfriend). Great both offensively and defensively, scored an impressive 33 goals in 13 years on Juve and was the opposite of Molinaro in his ability to cross the ball.  Was the best left back in the world in early 80s and was the role model for Maldini and Zambrotta’s ability to play all over the pitch. Similar Player: Evra from Manchester United. Potential FIFA rating: 83 with 86 for stamina 82 for tackling and 81 for passing.

Massimo Bonini- Gianni Agnelli once asked Michael Platini if he smoked, Platini’s answer “the important thing is that Bonini does not smoke”. Tireless hard worker, basically known as Platini’s body guard on the pitch. Bonini could have easily played for Italy but he was born in San Marino a small republic in Northern Italy that has its own national team. To me Favero and Bonini represent the working class qualities that made this Juventus team great and so tough. Similar Player: Van Bommel is somewhat similar, but Bonini was more of a runner then a powerful midfielder (think Vidal whom Juve is currently linked to). Potential FIFA rating:  79 with 91 for stamina 84 for tackling and 86 for positioning.

Sergio Brio- very tall central defender who was very good at headers (24 career goals for Juventus).  He played for Juve for 16 years and is one of only 5 players to have won all of the European competitions. Never really had a chance to play for Italy since there were numerous great defenders in 80s (Bergomi, Collovati, Ferri etc) but was an ideal partner for Scirea on Juve since Brio was so physically strong.  While Scirea and Cabrini were the stars of the defense, Brio and Favero were probably the main reason Juventus was the last team most elite strikers wanted to face. Similar Players:  Chiellini and Pique. Potential FIFA rating: 81 with 86 for tackling 88 for man marking and 74 for speed.

Gaetano Scirea- an absolute legend who died tragically at the age of 36 while on a scouting trip for Juventus in Poland in 1989. Scirea perfected the role of the sweeper which was made famous by Beckenbauer. Scirea was all class, never once received a red card in his career. He was the perfect complement to ferocious defenders like Claudio Gentile, Brio and Favero.  The role of the sweeper does not really exist in modern football. Similar Players: Laurent Blanc of France was probably the last great sweeper and played similarly to Scirea. Potential FIFA rating: 85 with 83 tackling 90 awareness and 86 positioning.

Massimo Briaschi- arguably the player with the lowest profile from this Juventus team. He was one of the strikers with Paolo Rossi (both had played for Vicenza prior to Juventus) and was also a tireless worker.  Similar Players: Kuyt and to a lesser extent Iaquinta. Potential FIFA rating: 78 with 83 for finishing and 82 for positioning.

Marco Tardelli- he was another of the key players for the Azzurri in 1982, his celebration after scoring the second goal in the final against Germany is the image most remember from that game. Tardelli was a physical monster, he was very strong defensively but also had a knack for scoring goals in big games. His nickname was “Schizzo” for his ability to run nonstop during a game. Tardelli almost went to Inter prior to signing with Juventus in 1974, he eventually was sold to the nerazzuri in 1985 but was not very successful there.  Similar Player: Our current coach Antonio Conte and to a lesser extent Marchisio . Potential  FIFA rating: 83 with 84 for tackling 87 for stamina and 81 for speed.

Paolo Rossi- arguably the most famous player on the team after Platini. Rossi was the star of the Italy squad that won the World Cup in 1982- he scored 6 goals during the tournament and had a hat trick against an amazing Brazil team that featured Zico, Socrates and Falcao. Paolo Rossi’s autobiography is titled “Ho fatto piangere il Brazil” (“I made Brazil cry”) which is a reference to this game. Juventus bought Paolo Rossi while he was serving a two year suspension for his involvement in a betting scandal in early 80s. Rossi was deadly in the box but had to rely on his teammates to create his scoring opportunities. Similar Players:  Pippo Inzaghi and Klose of Germany.  Potential FIFA rating: 84 with 88 for finishing and 84 for positioning.

Michael Platini- one of the greatest players in Juve’s history and one of the best to wear our number 10 jersey along with Sivori, Baggio and Del Piero. He came to Juve in early 80s and struggled so badly at first that Juve considered sending him back to France after just one year. Played on some very successful France teams (won the Euro in 1984 and made the semifinal in the 1986 World Cup), was part of one of the greatest midfields in World Cup history with Fernandez, Giresse and Tigana (both of them played on the Bordeaux team Juve eliminated in the semifinal)- their style of play was so bubbly that it was called “le football champagne”.  The current version of Spain is the only national squad in the modern era that has a comparable midfield to Platini’s France. Platini was deadly on free kicks and was a very clutch player, he is often criticized for how much he celebrated after scoring the goal in the final due to the tragedy in the stands but he stated he was not aware of the extent of the violence and that many had died. Platini is the current head of UEFA and may replace Blatter as the head of FIFA. Similar Players: Zidane is the obvious comparison to Platini, but Gerrard and to a lesser extent Pastore are other comparable players for their ability to control the pace of the game. Potential FIFA rating: 86 with 88 for awareness 91 for passing and 88 for finishing.

Zibignew Boniek- the Avvoccato Gianni Agnelli famously called him “bello di notte” (handsome at night) for his ability to play his best during European competitions which took place at night.  Was the best player on Poland who finished a surprisingly third in the 1982 World Cup. Boniek was very fast and had great dribbling skills.  He played on Juve for three years before being sold to Roma. Similar Players:  the version of Krasic we saw in the first half of last season, but Boniek had much better dribbling skills. Potential FIFA rating: 82 with 90 for speed and 88 for dribbling.

Random Facts
Prandelli the current coach of the Azzurri was on the bench for Juventus and replaced Briaschi for last 6 minutes of the game.
At the time of this competition Serie A teams could only have two non Italian players on the roster, Juventus had Platini and Boniek two of the biggest stars of the previous World Cup. It would be like if Juventus had Villa and Robben nowadays.

Juventus did not win the scudetto during the 1984-85 seasons, Verona won its only championship that year. Maybe it is a coincidence but the 1984-85 season was the last season in which referees for Serie A games were drown at random, since then FIGC has chosen the referees for each game.

Liverpool striker Ian Rush played for Juventus in the 1987-1988 with very limited success (8 goals in 29 games). Many believe Rush, arguably one of the most feared strikers of the 80s, was sold to Juventus by Liverpool as way to make amends for the Heysel disaster.