The Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport in today’s edition brought an emotional reminder of November 6, 1996, the day when Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy faced off in Sarajevo, which had just emerged from the whirlwind of war. It was a match whose significance far exceeded the scope of sport.
There is a very practical reason why Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy took to the field in the afternoon on November 6, 1996 – the Koševo stadium did not have floodlights at the time.
“In the mid-1990s, happiness could be found in many places on the globe, but Sarajevo was definitely not one of them. However, that day, in a crowded Koševo, the ball was rolling again after four years of war and a long siege of the capital that had just come to an end.
The city was still bleeding. The large scoreboard in the stadium was riddled with bullets, and a banner was draped over it with the inscription: “Grazie azzurri” (Thank you, azzurri). Italy, the then world vice-champion, had the wonderful idea of visiting Sarajevo, and it was there that the first historic showdown between these two teams was born,” recalls the Gazzetta.
The legendary Italian commentator Bruno Pizzul also quietly said this at the beginning of the television broadcast:
“It is almost superfluous to emphasize that the meaning of this match goes far beyond a sporting and football event,” said Pizzul.
The war in Sarajevo did not spare football either. In 1993, a shell fell during a match, leaving behind dead and wounded. In the years of snipers and mortars, there was no room for football, so the best BiH players were forced to pack their bags. Kapetanović made his name in Wolfsburg, while the young Hasan Salihamidžić left the country at the age of just 15 and went to Hamburg. For them, as well as for the 40,000 people in the stands, the BiH – Italy match was something very special. It was the national team’s first match in Sarajevo.
On the other side of the field stood a top opponent. Coach Arrigo Sacchi could not count on Inter and Juventus players due to his commitments in the Italian Cup (with the exception of Torricelli), but he brought stars like Toldo, Maldini, Chiesa, Dino Baggio and Zola to Sarajevo.
The day before the match, the Italian coach explained: “We want to bring a little peace to these people. Playing in Sarajevo after four years means that things are getting back to normal.”
The Italian delegation then visited the children’s hospital in the city, bringing them symbolic gifts, smiles and a grain of comfort, but also material ones, such as markers, notebooks, pencils and food.
And then, at 1:30 PM, the players of both teams took to the field with an eruption of enthusiasm on Koševo.
In the fifth minute, the stadium exploded. Salihamidžić, whom the Italians would come to know well a decade later in the Juventus jersey, took advantage of a misunderstanding in the defense and checked Toldo before he could return to the goal line.
The Italian equalizer came quickly. Enrico Chiesa scored the goal, taking advantage of a poor reaction from the Bosnian defense. Italy did not take their foot off the gas after that, the Azzurri had several chances to turn the game around, but Elvir Bolić shocked them with a goal for 2:1.
BiH defended compactly until the final whistle, and then a celebration with 40,000 fans followed.
“This is a result that will remain in the annals,” commented Pizzul at the end of the match. Journalists who reported at the time recall that from the stands you could clearly see the surrounding hills, largely turned into cemeteries. But at least for those two hours, in Sarajevo, it was thought of a little less.
The first historic match that BiH played in its capital ended in triumph. Until that moment, Salihamidžić and his teammates had played only one official match as “hosts”, a month earlier against Croatia at the Dall’Ara stadium in Bologna.
“For BiH, that day began a long and not at all easy process of awakening, which would culminate a few decades later when the generation led by Edin Džeko, who still leads the team today, won a historic place in the 2014 World Cup,” writes the famous Italian newspaper.
On the other hand, November 6, 1996, also went down in history as Arrigo Sacchi’s last match on the Azzurri bench.
A few weeks later, he resigned and returned to Milan, and was succeeded by Cesare Maldini. Thus, a new cycle began in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while a historic one ended in the Italian camp. Football is simply like that, even when it comes to friendly matches.
