Cagliari vs Fiorentina Throwback: How the Viola Lost a Scudetto

Those who are not lucky enough to have enjoyed the Serie A during the glorious 1980s may wonder why there is such an acrimonious rivalry between Fiorentina and Juventus.

After all, it’s not like the Viola and the Bianconeri have gone head-to-head for any trophy in recent times. And yet, back in the days of the Sette Sorelle (“Seven Sisters”) when there were at least seven clubs able to regularly compete for the Italian title, Fiorentina and Juventus could go as far as playing each other in an epic UEFA Cup Final (1989/90 season).

But the true origin of the feud dates back to even earlier than that and precisely to the 1981/82 campaign, when Juventus grabbed their 20^th Italian Scudetto by snatching the title out of Fiorentina’s hands in the last matchday. They did so thanks to…Cagliari, who held the Viola to a goalless draw while the Old Lady snatched a precious away win at Catanzaro to pass the Florentines on the final lap.  

It was a major disappointment that still haunts the memories of the Fiorentina fans as never since then have the Viola come so close to putting their hands on the title again. Plus, the 1981/82 season really seemed like the perfect time.

The ambitious Pontello Family, the then owners of Fiorentina, had provided coach Giancarlo Picchio De Sisti with a more than respectable roster. Players like Antonello Cuccureddu from Juventus, and Torino duo Eraldo Pecci and Francesco Ciccio Graziani (a future World Champion with the Azzurri…) had landed in Florence to join a solid backbone where shone the star of stalwart captain Giancarlo Antognoni playing his tenth season with the Viola.

De Sisti himself was an up-and-coming manager. A Fiorentina legend himself, having spent nine years with the club as a player, he had started coaching at 38 years of age right after hanging his boots. He had taken charge of a relegation-battling Fiorentina in the middle of the previous season and raised them as high as the fifth place in the table. Now, it was time to raise the stakes.

Juventus, on the other hand, were the incumbent Serie A champions but did not necessarily appear as a top candidate for a repeat. Their transfer market campaign had been somewhat lackluster and the Bianconeri couldn’t count on their top striker Paolo Rossi for most of the season. The future World Cup top scorer was still serving a long ban for his involvement in a match-fixing scandal.

Fiorentina and Juventus gave life to a thrilling battle all along the season, passing each other multiple times at the top of the table. Neither of the two direct confrontations made any difference as they both ended with no goals.

The Viola had to make do without their captain Antognoni for many months, consequence of a terrible injury he suffered in a crash with Genoa’s goalkeeper Silvano Martina but managed to come to the last match day tied on even points with Juventus – 44 vs 44.

Enter Cagliari.

In the spring of 1982, the Sardinians were an anonymous team struggling to maintain their top-flight status. Their most prominent name was striker Franco Selvaggi, who would also join Italy’s World Cup winning roster a few months later as a backup.

Cagliari desperately needed at least one point to avoid relegation as they battled at a distance with Bologna, Genoa, and Milan (!) to escape the drop. Not the ideal opposition for Fiorentina, who were expected to pay a visit to them in the last campionato round on May 16, 1982.

Conversely, a much easier test awaited Juventus. The Bianconeri traveled to Calabria to face Catanzaro – a club that has since long left the Serie A shores but was sitting in a comfortable seventh place back then.

The match at the Sant’Elia Stadium between Cagliari and Fiorentina was anything but a memorable one. It would not have gone down in history if not for its consequences. Both sides were visibly scared and cautious. But, if Cagliari could still be potentially happy with a draw, the Viola knew they needed to do as much as possible to win as they waited for some news to come from Catanzaro.

But, when the news from Catanzaro indeed came – and it was, expected, that Juventus had taken the lead with a spot-kick from Irishman Liam Brady – Fiorentina were too tired, or too scared, or simply not in the right mindset to try a final assault. The Sardinians didn’t have to do much to salvage their precious point, which saved their permanence in the top-flight and doomed Fiorentina’s hopes.

If truth be told, Picchio De Sisti’s Fiorentina did manage to score within the 90 minutes, but Graziani’s potential winner was disallowed by referee Maurizio Mattei on grounds of a Daniel Bertoni foul on Cagliari’s goalkeeper. It was a controversial episode in perfect Serie A style, which added to the sour news coming from Calabria as Catanzaro were apparently also denied a penalty that could have changed the story of the season.

The 1981/82 campaign thus was archived as the season where Juventus conquered their second “star”, Milan collected their second shocking relegation, and Fiorentina lost a Scudetto at the very last gasp, sparking a rivalry with the Bianconeri that is still among the harshest in Serie A as of today.      

MATCH SCORECARD

May 16, 1982 – Serie A 1981-82 Round 30
CAGLIARI – FIORENTINA 0-0