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00:00 The perfect games are made like this, a narrow circle that looks like each other.
00:07 Controlled origin, limited and numbered editions.
00:11 On May 2nd 2007, before the perfect win 3-0 against Manchester United in the Champions League semi-final in San Siro,
00:18 there was a great absence in Milan, the one represented by Paolo Maldini.
00:23 And on the morning of that Milan-Manchester United 3-0, in the Milanello's dressing room, Paolo Maldini promised himself,
00:30 from the whole team, no one excluded, that he would allow him, winning the game of the evening, to go to the final.
00:36 A new great final as a captain.
00:38 And then it was done in the evening, that evening, the evening of Milan-Manchester United 3-0, when it was raining, it was raining a lot, it was raining a lot.
00:45 Just as it had happened also in that other evening.
00:48 The first one, here it is, the narrow circle. Another semi-final, this time of the Champions League, return match, rain, Real Madrid.
00:56 We are told the whole story by Mauro Tassotti.
01:00 What I remember most was the stadium, the enthusiasm that was there in that evening.
01:05 We came from the game, from the semi-final, we were missing for a long time from that stage, from that stage.
01:12 We came from the game in Madrid, where we played very well, we played a great attacking game.
01:18 Real Madrid at that time was the opponent that everyone feared in Europe at that time.
01:24 I remember, for example, that he won many games in Madrid, overtaking them.
01:29 He always had this air, in short, in Real, that he could do everything.
01:33 We saw him as our opponent, in short, at that time.
01:37 Between us and the Champions League, there was Real Madrid, even if that was only the semi-final, it was not the final,
01:43 but it seemed our opponent, they seemed, in short.
01:47 On April 19, 1989, that day too there was a great absence in the team.
01:53 Not iconic, not gigantic, like Paolo Maldini's, but still the absence of a starter.
01:59 The absence of a gang of the starting row.
02:03 The attacking line of the Milan of the immortals of Arrigo Sacchi was in fact more or less always the same.
02:09 Donadoni, Rijkaard, Van Basten, Gullit, Evani.
02:12 But that evening, Kikko, that evening, Alberico, Evani, he was not there.
02:16 He could not be there because he was unlucky the day before in training.
02:19 Because even in training there had to be a real game.
02:21 Because even in training you had to be intense.
02:24 Because even in training you had to give everything.
02:26 Because if you don't give everything in training, how do you do it in the game?
02:30 Arrigo Sacchi thought so. And at the Unisono, in a climate of everyone for one,
02:34 in symbiosis, the whole Milan of the immortals thought so too.
02:37 And so at the peak of a game contrast in the training match on the eve of Milan-Real Madrid,
02:43 Evani was taken out of the field.
02:46 There was the semifinal of the story, but he would not have been there, he would not have done it.
02:51 And then the line of Milan-Real was played in another way.
02:55 Donadoni, Rijkaard, Van Basten, Gullit, Ancelotti.
02:58 Another number 11, another of the immortals, but not Evani.
03:02 It was Carlo Ancelotti's turn.
03:04 It was raining a lot in the late afternoon of that Milan-Real Madrid 5-0 on April 19, 1989.
03:10 The 18.30 rainstorm that Milan knows well.
03:13 A spring rainstorm that somehow put the San Siro meadow at risk,
03:17 that in the prayers of the vigil the fans dreamed and imagined perfect.
03:21 "Will we play it?"
03:24 "It was the doubt said and not said, thought and murmured," says a Red-Black fan.
03:28 The Milanista did not think about how wet he was in the approach to the stadium,
03:33 he thought only about the team, only about the match,
03:35 the hold of the field where their feet would have rested.
03:38 The heroes of the Milan of the immortals, the heroes of the semi-final with Real,
03:42 the heroes of the Milan of the Scudetto di Como, the heroes of the trip to Bernabeu.
03:46 The evening of Milan-Real Madrid 5-0 on April 19, 1989
03:50 is remembered by many as the evening when the rainbows came and went.
03:55 Rainbows of all colors, blue, yellow, white, red, black, of course.
04:01 Because at the beginning of the match it was not raining,
04:03 but at some moments of the game, when Milan-Real Madrid seemed a game,
04:06 even too beautiful to be true,
04:08 when Milan-Real Madrid seemed a party to which one could not miss,
04:12 the party of the red-black colors, of the joy of playing, of being there, of living,
04:15 at that moment, it was raining.
04:17 It was done like this the first of the two perfect matches, the narrow circle.
04:22 Every now and then it rained, together with the goals, the rain,
04:24 in a certain purifying sense, the rain that took away so many anxieties and fears,
04:28 Milan-Real Madrid 5-0 of 1989,
04:31 and to think that in Milan-Manchester United 3-0 of May 2, 2007,
04:36 the same thing would have happened.
04:37 One goal after another, a lot of rain, everyone happy, everyone wet,
04:40 but not tears, of a water that accompanied Milan in the final,
04:43 under a waterfall of compliments, in a climate perfectly told by Mauro Tassotti.
04:48 There was a crazy enthusiasm, I still remember the stadium,
04:51 there were still people standing in the distinct sector, behind the doors,
04:56 a real tide, and then I remember the game,
05:01 we started with some difficulties, and then the game, in short,
05:05 it takes it slowly, and nothing, we enjoy the cello,
05:09 the cello is a little free from tensions, and from there it was all a crescendo,
05:14 in short, there was a moment of tension when Rudd came out,
05:18 because we were already thinking a little about the final game,
05:21 he had a knee problem, and then he took it, I remember,
05:24 until a few hours before the game, and nothing, it was a game that Sacchi prepared
05:31 as he knew how to do, in short, already Real Madrid was a team
05:34 that he did not like to defend, and we always tried to attack them,
05:39 both in Madrid and in San Siro, we made them play a little,
05:44 for a long time in their midfield, and it was the thing they knew how to do less,
05:48 in short, it was a team of great champions,
05:51 it was a team that was mostly devoted to attacking, not to defending.
05:56 And that's what I think the team, that game, after 30 years,
06:00 because it's been 30 years, and we all remember it with great affection,
06:05 in short, it was a bit of a game that he consecrated us,
06:09 that he consecrated the ring, I think, in the gutter,
06:12 of the best coaches in the world, and that team, from that game,
06:17 also with that game, in short, is recognized by everyone
06:20 as a team that has revolutionized, especially Italian football,
06:25 in short, in front of our eyes we had Italian teams,
06:30 in that period, when they met Real Madrid,
06:34 they defended, they tried to defend, above all,
06:39 and we did not attack them, we showed that you could also do another type of football,
06:44 in short, and we did it perfectly, in short, that's what I remember.
06:49 The thing that stuck with me was the noise, the enthusiasm of the people
06:55 who accompanied us throughout the game, in short, because we perhaps accompanied them
07:00 and they accompanied us to that type of performance.
07:04 It was a symbiosis between the audience and the team
07:09 that is not easy to feel in those moments,
07:13 but we really perceived that thing there, the whole team, I think,
07:18 the whole stadium was excited for the performance, in short.
07:23 This is what I remember from that game,
07:26 clearly, then I remember perfectly the goals,
07:29 the things that happened in the game itself,
07:33 but the thing that remained, I think, impressive,
07:38 was just the warmth of the people.
07:41 That evening at Real Madrid 5-0, it was difficult to understand where the Spaniards were looking.
07:46 It was not possible to understand if there was enough space
07:49 to collect all their lost, suspicious, astonished looks.
07:54 After all, it was the super-favourite, it was Real Madrid of the fifth of the Buitre.
08:00 It was one of the greatest Real Madrid ever,
08:03 a team that regularly eliminated and defeated Italian teams,
08:07 a team with whom Italian football was in total subjection.
08:13 Yet, Milan managed, in terms of football,
08:16 to subjugate, to mistreat, sportively, one of the strongest teams in history.
08:20 All perfect.
08:22 Even if we do not know today if Evani made himself promise in 1989
08:27 what Paolo Maldini had made himself promise in 2007.
08:30 Even if probably in 1989 there was no need for promises,
08:35 it was known and enough that it had to be done, it was owed to him, period.
08:39 It was a mantra that Evani and all the Milan in the final, him, Chico,
08:43 had to carry, who was unlucky for the cause on the day of the big game.
08:48 And then, precisely for this, his shirt, the number 11 shirt, scored the first goal.
08:52 Carlo Ancelotti's shot, no Madrid resistance and the goalkeeper Buio, beaten.
08:58 Buio with the Y in a night of Buio with the I,
09:02 of Buio, Real Madrid's conceptual white shirt, but without the front light.
09:08 All the spotlights were only red and black.
09:11 Evani, then, as a sign of fate, would have scored in the World Cup final
09:15 against Nacional Medellin, daughter of the semi-final against Real Madrid
09:19 of that Champions Cup, 8 months later, December 1989.
09:23 Without the number 11 shirt, Chico, but with the number 14 shirt.
09:27 It does not matter, the sky of Milan-Real 5-0 passed the witness to Tokyo.
09:31 In the sign of the Intercontinental, Evani would have won the World Cup goal,
09:36 what he could not score by misfortune against Real at San Siro.
09:40 But in the meantime, to honour the sacrifice to the intensity in training made by Evani,
09:45 Carlo Ancelotti had to score with his shirt, the number 11.
09:48 That's why, Milan-Real Madrid 5-0 is a fact of symbols, of rites, of liturgy,
09:53 of the Rosso Nero ritual.
09:55 The great absence, the great rain, the many goals, all Milanese.
09:59 Perfect games are made like this, they are similar to each other,
10:03 they are a narrow circle.
10:04 They know it well even today, Michel and Butragueño.
10:07 They know it well even today, Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.
10:10 When in the history of Milan, the train passes of the perfect game,
10:13 for the opponents maximum respect, but in the end, on the pitch, only standing.
10:18 [Music]
10:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]