The Euro final they had to play twice

On June 10, 1968, Italy defeated Yugoslavia 2–0 in Rome to claim their first European Championship. Sounds normal enough — until you learn how they got there. 1

Five days before the trophy was lifted, Italy played the Soviet Union in a semi-final at Stadio San Paolo in Naples. One hundred and twenty minutes of football. Zero goals. No penalty shootout existed in international football — IFAB (the International Football Association Board, the body that writes the Laws of the Game) wouldn't approve one until June 27, 1970. 2

So what broke the tie? A coin toss. In the dressing room. Italy captain Giacinto Facchetti — a rangy Inter Milan left-back who scored 59 Serie A goals as a defender — called it correctly, and Italy "won" their semi-final. 3

Soviet Union captain Albert Shesternyov called the wrong side and went home. His team had played 120 minutes of football and been eliminated by a spinning disc.

Yugoslavia, meanwhile, had earned their place the old-fashioned way: by actually scoring a goal. Left-winger Dragan Džajić — 22 years old, the tournament's standout player — lobbed England's Gordon Banks in the 87th minute of the other semi-final to knock out the reigning world champions. 4

The final on June 8 at Rome's Stadio Olimpico drew 68,817 fans. Yugoslavia's average age was just 23. They played well enough that Italy goalkeeper Dino Zoff later admitted, "to be honest, we didn't deserve to draw." 1 Džajić had put Yugoslavia ahead in the 39th minute. Italy clawed level through Angelo Domenghini's free kick in the 80th. Extra time produced nothing. Final score: 1–1.

Under 1968 tournament rules, with no penalty shootout available, the only option was a full replay two days later.

The replay was set for Monday, June 10 — a weekday. Most foreign fans had already gone home. Many Italian supporters couldn't take a second night off work. Attendance: 32,886 (per Wikipedia's UEFA archive figure; RSSSF records a higher estimate of around 50,000, though both agree it was sharply down). 1 More than half the crowd from Saturday night had simply evaporated.

Italy manager Ferruccio Valcareggi made five changes to his starting lineup. Five. He brought in Sandro Mazzola (who had been rested for the first final), and — most critically — recalled Gigi Riva, who was returning from a broken leg. 5 Yugoslavia made just one change.

The gap showed immediately. In the 12th minute, Domenghini's shot deflected off Riva's leg; Riva spun and slotted it left-footed. 1–0. In the 31st minute, a quick passing move ended with 20-year-old Pietro Anastasi meeting a cross and volleying home — his third international cap, his first international goal, and the youngest scorer in a European Championship final in history at 20 years and 64 days. 6 Italy coasted from there. Final score: 2–0.

Zoff's verdict on the second game was the mirror image of his verdict on the first: "In the replay we produced a perfect performance and won 2-0 thanks to goals by Riva and Anastasi. We definitely deserved to win that game." 5

Yugoslavia's star Džajić saw it differently. He blamed referee Gottfried Dienst for the draw in the first game — calling the Swiss official "the Azzurri's twelfth man." 4

The attendance collapse between the two matches is its own argument:

When football administrators looked at those two numbers — and at the coin-toss semi-final — they got the message. IFAB formally adopted the penalty shootout on June 27, 1970. 2 The first major final decided by one was the 1976 European Championship, when Czechoslovakia beat West Germany 5–3 on penalties.

The 1968 Euro final replay is the only major international tournament final — World Cup, European Championship, Copa América, or AFCON — ever decided by a full replay. 1 No subsequent final has needed a replay, because no subsequent final has lacked a penalty shootout.

There's one more layer to this. Two years before Rome, Italy had flown home from the 1966 World Cup in England after losing to North Korea in the group stage — one of the most humiliating exits in the tournament's history. Fans threw tomatoes at the players at the airport. 7 The manager was sacked. Valcareggi was brought in to rebuild.

So when Giacinto Facchetti lifted the Henri Delaunay Trophy on a half-empty Monday night in Rome, it wasn't just Italy's first European title. It was the end of two years of national embarrassment — secured, in part, by calling tails.