It’s June 23rd and nearly one week into USA ’94. If you happened to miss the clash between Italy and Norway and, as one did in those days, checked Ceefax and seen the headline ’Baggio heads winner’, you would reasonably assume that Roberto Baggio had saved Italy’s blushes from a surprising early exit from the competition. Italy’s talisman and creator-in-chief was the planet’s finest player having won the Balon d’Or the previous December and had scored seventeen league goals for Juventus in the season heading into the tournament
Ray Houghton’s winner for the Republic of Ireland in the
opening match of group stage E meant Arrigo Sacchi’s Azzurri had no alternative but to win their second game against the
dull-but-resolute Norwegians. In the 68th
minute Italy, who had been reduced to ten men earlier in the match, are awarded
a free kick on the left hand side of the pitch. Beppe Signori, with his
pint-sized left foot, whips a glorious ball into the box on to the head of the
onrushing Baggio. He guides the ball powerfully past Erik Thorstvedt to give
Italy the lead and eventually the victory.
Yet it wasn’t the pony-tailed genius that garnered headlines
this time, it was the other Baggio, the unheralded yet-gifted central
midfielder Dino Baggio.
