In this guest post spotlighting his new book, author Richard Hough recounts a defining moment in Hellas Verona’s improbable journey to their historic Scudetto triumph.
With the 40th anniversary approaching, a lot has been said and written about that miraculous 1984/85 season in which Hellas Verona won their historic scudetto. Much of it by me! And why not! It was surely one of the greatest sporting upsets of all time. To my mind, only Leicester City’s triumph in 2016 comes close. Rather than try to revisit the entire season in this short article, I thought it would be interesting to zone in on a particular game, a key encounter that marked a turning point in the season, a moment when the possibility of Hellas Verona winning the scudetto became more than just a wild dream.
Players, coaches and fans from that era are often asked at what point they realised that such a massive upset was on the cards. At what point did they dare to believe that Hellas could actually win the championship.
Each player has a slightly different response to that question.
For some it was as early as that famous 2-0 victory against Juventus at the Bentegodi on matchday 5, when Elkjær’sfamous “shoeless goal” against the reigning champions was an early indication that something miraculous was happening.
The first Hellas player to “go public” with his belief that Verona might win the championship was Pierino Fanna (a relatively unknown outside Italy despite having already won the title three times with Juventus). It was New Year’s Eve 1984 and the Hellas players and their wives had gathered in Cavalese, a picturesque alpine ski resort high in the Italian Dolomites to pass the Christmas holidays together. At the stroke of midnight, in an uncharacteristic display of bravado, the talented winger proposed a toast. Though he didn’t specifically mention the scudetto (coach Osvaldo Bagnoli prohibited his players from even uttering the word), Fannaannounced to his slightly startled teammates that this was their year. Though details vary (some say the dinner took place on Boxing Day), none of the players present that evening would ever forget the sentiment behind what became known as “il patto di Cavalese” (the Pact of Cavalese).
Though Hellas went on to lose the last game of the “girone di andata” against Avellino on 13 January 1985, their first defeat of the season, they were still crowned “Campione d’Inverno” (Winter Champions) for the first (and only) time in the club’s history. Even at this midway point in the season, however, few believed that Verona could maintain the level of consistency that had been a hallmark of their season so far. It was surely just a matter of time before something gave and the bigger clubs re-established control.
The 10th February 1985 marked a turning point, a moment when even the biggest sceptics conceded that the underdogs might just have what it took to win the championship, as Hellas travelled to Friuli-Venezia Giulia to take on an ambitious but struggling Udinese. With eight goals from six different players, it was one of the greatest games of the Bagnoli era.
After several weeks out with a niggling thigh-strain, PrebenElkjær Larsen, Hellas Verona’s devastating Danish dynamite striker, returned to the starting line-up. For Udinese, Arthur Antunes Coimbra was also making a much-anticipated comeback after a frustrating three-and-a-half-month spell spent on the sidelines. The Brazilian had arrived in Italy on 15 June 1983, his stunning signing a massive coup for the unfancied team from Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Forty thousand turned out to watch his home debut against his former club, Flamengo, for whom he had scored 123 goals in 212 appearances, after all the Brazilian number 10 was one of the greatest players of all time. To the footballing world he was known simply as Zico.
Conditions for the great Brazilian playmaker are far from ideal, with the playing surface a clawing murky brown. It’s been a long, bitterly cold and wet winter during which the players have become accustomed to plying their trade in such appalling conditions. Despite the gloom, 42,676 fans have packed into the Stadio Friuli, while the recently installed giant screen that looms above the Curva Sud, the third largest of its kind in the world, represents a brash statement of President Lamberto Mazza’s bold ambitions for the club. Bagnoli, Verona’s shrewd and pragmatic coach, opts for a muscular but offensive 4-3-3 formation, with in-form playmaker Antonio Di Gennaro and the German “Panzer” Hans Peter Briegel in midfield alongside Luigi Sacchetti.
Briegel opens the scoring after just three minutes with a header from a trademark Pierino Fanna free kick. Verona’s diminutive striker, Giuseppe “Nanu” Galderisi doubles theirlead barely five minutes later.
Then comes the moment of the match. A long clearance on the badly cutting up pitch finds Elkjær on the halfway line. He shrugs off a defender and, as we have come to expect, accelerates towards the box with breath-taking pace and power, leaving another defender sprawling in his wake. As the goalkeeper rushes out towards him, Elkjær pulls off an audacious lob to put Hellas three up with just 20 minutes on the clock. Verona even grab a fourth, but sweeper Roberto Tricella’s finish is eventually ruled offside. Then, just minutes before half-time, Fanna is hit hard by an opposing defender and forced to hobble off. On the stroke of half-time, Udinese’s other Brazilian, Edino Nazareth Filho, pulls one back from a well-struck long-range free kick that makes a mockery of the Hellas wall.
In the second half, two more goals (from Andrea Carnevale and Massimo Mauro) in the first 14 minutes complete an epic Udinese comeback. The Stadio Friuli explodes as the home fans sense the momentum shifting decisively in their favour. For the Hellas, these are the most dramatic moments of the season. They have somehow squandered a three-goal lead. Could this be turning point in a campaign that has already exceeded expectations?
It’s Elkjær who responds for Hellas with his second in the 61st minute before Briegel completes the rout two minutes later. In his post-match interview, Bagnoli admits that he’s never seen a match quite like it. Many years later, in an interview with the local newspaper, L’Arena di Verona, Elkjæradmits that this was the moment when he believed that Hellas could actually win the championship.
Richard Hough is the author of Verona Campione, the Miracle of 85, published on 5 May 2025 by Pitch Publishing.
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