MILAN – Once upon a time football didn't stop for Christmas in Italy. For rather a long time, actually: from 1927 to 1994 Serie A teams would take to the field at Christmas and New Year. And among them, of course, was Inter.
In 1927 the Nerazzurri hosted Verona on Christmas Day for a Divisione Nazionale Group B fixture, back in the day when Italy's top flight was still divided into groups.
Playing at their old ground in Via Goldoni, just a stone's throw from Porta Venezia, Inter secured a comfortable 4-1 win with two of Italian football's greatest names on the scoresheet: Giuseppe Meazza and Fulvio Bernardini.
17-year-old Meazza found the net against Verona for the second time that season – his debut campaign – having previously scored in the reverse fixture. Bernardini meanwhile – the man who first spotted Meazza's precocious talent and recommended him to Arpad Weisz – bagged himself a rare brace.
In 1945 Inter hosted Genoa on Christmas Eve. With Italy still coming to terms with the aftermath of World War Two, the league had reverted to a dual division format for the first post-war season. Carlo Carcano's side got into the festive mood by dishing out a 9-1 drubbing to the visitors in what remains Inter's third-biggest league victory on record. Romano Penzo was the star of the show, helping himself to no fewer than five goals. He would end the year – his only season with Inter – with 18 to his name.
Helenio Herrera often enjoyed the festive period too. Having been placed in charge by Angelo Moratti in the summer of 1960, Il Mago celebrated his first Christmas in the Nerazzurri dugout with two wins in the space of a week, on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
The first was a 4-1 defeat of SPAL, with two goals by a 19-year-old Mario Corso and one apiece from Swedish midfielder Bengt Lindskog and South Africa-born Italy striker Eddie Firmani. A week later Corso netted the only goal in a 1-0 success at Torino.
A few years later, in 1966, the big Christmas match saw Inter face off against Juventus on 1 January (in 1966/67 and 1967/68 the same fixture took place on 31 December). The game itself ended 0-0 but it is often remembered for a joke the squad played on Herrera the night before. Having banned all alcohol from New Year celebrations, the coach awoke on New Year's Day to find a number of empty champagne bottles scattered around Appiano Gentile – none of which of course had been drunk by the players.
Moving forward to the eighties, there were New Year celebrations to be had following Inter victories on 31 December in 1983 and 1988.
The first was a 1-0 win over Verona at San Siro, decided by an Antonio Di Gennaro own goal.
The second saw Giovanni Trapattoni's Nerazzurri defeat Lecce 3-0 away, although it wasn't as easy as the scoreline suggests. Carlo Mazzone's side held their own for over an hour and gave Walter Zenga plenty to do between the sticks. In the end, it was three of Inter's summer signings who got the goals: Ramon Diaz, Andreas Brehme and Nicola Berti.
Five months later, Trapattoni's men celebrated the Scudetto with four games to spare and would end the season on 58 points – a record in the two-points-for-a-win era.
No Italian team would ever beat it, just as no Italian side has ever played on 31 December since, though New Year's fixtures continued until 1993/94. Nowadays Serie A lovers have to make do with panettone until the new year...
Roberto Brambilla
