Present-day Serie B club Bari beating Inter may sound like a total upset nowadays, but what if we told you that it once used to be an anything but uncommon occurrence in Serie A?
For some reason, the Galletti were an absolute nemesis for the Nerazzurri towards the end of the Century. Many of these games have become Serie A classic – including the one that saw a young Antonio Cassano make a scoring debut in the top-flight.
But today we recall a different game – the one played at the San Siro on November 1, 1998, when Eugenio Fascetti’s Bari took all three points on offer, winning 3-2 to the detriment of Gigi Simoni’s Inter.
Led by the Fenomeno Ronaldo Luis Nazario da Lima, Inter were a dominating force in Serie A but had had a difficult campaign start in the 1998/99 season. Simoni’s job was at risk and indeed the Romagna-born coach would be axed a few weeks after his defeat to Bari.
It was a crazy game that one, featuring midfielder Paulo Sousa scoring an early sendoff, thus forcing the Nerazzurri to play with one man less for most of the game, and a very young Gianluca Zambrotta nutmegging Gianluca Pagliuca to put the Biancorossi ahead.
But the man of the day ended up being the poor Philemon Masinga, a South African international who played for four seasons in Bari. He passed away in 2019 due to cancer and he is affectionately remembered in Bari for the 24 goals he scored during his permanence.
On that day, Masinga gave the Galletti a day to remember with two clinical tap ins from close range, whic brough the score at 3-1 after Ronaldo had equalized from the spot for Inter. Defender Francesco Colonnese made the Nerazzurri‘s defeat only a little less bitter with an injury time goal.
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