03/11/1993. Parma, Italy. 1/8 finals, European Cup Winners' Cup. 2nd Leg.

P: -.
PENALTIES (second):  Massimo Crippa   1:0
                     Lorenzo Menotti  2:1
                     Thomas Brolin    3:1

H: Alon Mizrahi (51).
PENALTIES (first):   Alon Mizrahi     0:0  (his left post)
                     Moshe Glam       1:1
                     Alon Harazi      1:2  (Luca Bucci)
                     Reuven Attar     1:3  (Luca Bucci)


GOAL PASSES:    Hosts  - NONE;
                Guests - Alon Harazi.

On the 105th minute Gianfranco Zola (Parma) missed a penalty kick -
Rafi Cohen saved.


PARMA:   Luca Bucci            7     HAIFA:   Rafi Cohen            8.5
         -----------------------              -------------------------
         Antonio Benarrivo     5              Marco Balbul      injured
         (Sergio Valeri, 64 -  5)             (Arik Benado, 24    - 7.5)
         Lorenzo Menotti     5.5              Roman Pets            8.5
         Luigi Apolloni        5              Alon Harazi             7
         Alberto di Chiara   5.5              Moshe Glam              7
         -----------------------              -------------------------
         Matteracano           5              Sergei Kandaurov        7
         Thomas Brolin       4.5              Ronnie Levi             7
         Lorenzo Pin           5              (Shai Holtzman, 120)
         (Amedeo Zuratto, 80 - 4)             Eyal Berkovich        7.5
         Massimo Crippa      5.5              Reuven Attar          7.5
         Gianfranco Zola     4.5              -------------------------
         -----------------------              Alon Mizrahi            7
         Faustino Asprilla     5              Ivan Getsko           7.5


THE BEST:      Rafi Cohen, keeper,   Maccabee Haifa.
               Roman Pets, defender, Maccabee Haifa.

YELLOW CARDS:  Hosts  - Alberto di Chiara, Lorenzo Pin;
               Guests - Rafi Cohen, Sergei Kandaurov, Ivan Getsko, Reuven Attar.

REFEREE:       Ahmed Hakan (Turkey).       HIS GRADE: 8.

CORNERS:       17-6 to Parma.

THE AUDIENCE:  10.000, Parma, Italy.

This was the day to put an Israeli Soccer on the European map, or better, to base it there, after a success of the National Team in France. Maccabee Haifa, a modest team not to be taken seriously enough in the town of Parmesan cheese, stood 11 meters from the greatest European Cups' astonishment of the last decade, only to watch Luca Bucci spoiling the sensation from being perfect. Nevertheless, nobody will forget the relief Parma's players and coaches clearly expressed after the last penalty.

Parma had a last minute winner from Haifa, by Thomas Brolin, and was playing with no pressure at first, so as to devastate the opponent. However, it was Rafi Cohen to parry the danger, and then - Alon Mizrahi with a fantastic effort of his. When Gianfranco Zola missed a penalty kick in the extra-time, it seemed like Parma had been broken. However, it had the wonderful Luca Bucci in the net, to make the difference during the penalty shoot-out.

Rafi Cohen, making miracles on the pitch and parrying a penalty kick at the critical point, was the story of the game, and that can show us the vigor of Parma's attacks. However, Luca Bucci was the best in his team too, and that shows us beyond any doubt - nobody can say that Haifa "stole" the victory, as its attacks were dangerous and often, and it played a soccer to be proud of, not falling at all from "The Best Team Of 1993" (according to "France Football" magazine).

FIRST HALF

The first half was the part of the game, in which Haifa was preparing itself towards the continuation. Parma was pressing all over, but the defence was steady, and Rafi Cohen was always the last address in the net; on the other hand, Eyal Berkovich and Reuven Attar helped the defence, but didn't organize any dangerous attacks, and Alon Mizrahi felt pretty lonely in the attacking line. Ivan Getsko surprised for good - sitting almost constantly on Haifa's bench, the forward took the rare opportunity with both hands and legs, fighting for every ball and being at every place the team needed.

22 minutes have passed, and Thomas Brolin headed a ball from 12 meters - it was parried superbly by Rafi Cohen. After 2 more minutes, the experienced National Team defender Marco Balbul was injured in a collision with Gianfranco Zola and had to leave the pitch; the hearts started beating, as Balbul was doing a great job on Faustino Asprilla. However, the young Olympic defender Arik Benado continued the trend and made Asprilla disappear from the game. The Colombian striker had only one opportunity (30), when he passed Benado and entered the box, only to be blocked greatly by Roman Pets and to earn just a corner.

Rafi Cohen made several more saves to mention, amongst them from the kick of Gianfranco Zola. And the teams went to the break, Haifa still being down on aggregate.

SECOND HALF

The game was seen by me later in a replay, and it was the radio live report to keep me informed. After the "News at 7", the report was renewed by the question of an Israeli dictor in Israel: "We heard about a goal in Parma. Inform us detailed, please!" And the answer, unbelievable as it was, came: "Right, and what a goal! Maccabee Haifa 1 - Parma 0! Alon Mizrahi!"

It happened six minutes after the break. Haifa created a counterattack with Kandaurov, who found Alon Harazi at the right wing. Alon advanced something like 20 meters past the midline, raised his head and found Alon Mizrahi, 30 meters from the net. The best Israeli scorer got a ball and screwed himself in between Menotti and Benarrivo; it seemed for a moment that Mizrahi gave the ball away, but then he shot with an external part of his right foot from 18 meters. The ball found the gap between the rushing Bucci and the right post of his. 1:0 to Haifa, and the sides were even now.

And here something happened to Parma. It went on attacking, but Haifa started attacking itself and playing with no inferior feelings. 54: Eyal Berkovich and Reuven Attar made 3 double-passes to open Parma's defence, and Attar shot the ball from within the box; Bucci needed all his skill to parry it to a corner. 63: Attar shot a free kick, the wall deflected it over the hands of flying Bucci, but went centimeters from the left post of the keeper. 75: Alon Mizrahi didn't find Berkovich, who stood alone in the box. 82: Reuven Attar, Alon Mizrahi and Ivan Getsko waited for the pass, but the referee whistled for an offside after the pass of Eyal Berkovich.

Parma also attacked, but it wasn't enough, as Rafi Cohen was there. Just once Rafi could do nothing, but the cannon shot of Brolin (77) was stopped by the bar. The dangerous shot of Asprilla went too high (85).

EXTRA-TIME

101 minutes have passed, and the most controversial moment of the game happened. Eyal Berkovich sent Alon Mizrahi in one-to-one with Bucci, but Alon had to run several meters to catch with the ball; Bucci got out of the net and blocked the shot of Mizrahi, who tried to bounce it over the keeper. A lot of replays showed later on Bucci had used his hands outside the box. The referee marked to continue playing.

A moment before the whistle for the end of the third period, Massimo Crippa got a ball before the net; Haifa's defence wanted an offside, which wasn't awarded, and so, Alon Harazi saw the immediate threat and sent Crippa down. A penalty kick and a golden opportunity of Parma; Zola shot at half a height to his left, and Rafi Cohen flew superbly to send it to a corner. Giorgio Fiordanescci, Parma's President: "When Zola missed a penalty kick, I thought that some magic was playing against us".

110: Eyal Berkovich and Reuven Attar opened the defence of Parma again, but Eyal tried his luck from 20 meters, and Bucci took the ball. The last chance was of Zola (118), but Rafi Cohen parried his shot to the post.

THE PENALTY SHOOT-OUT

Alon Mizrahi shot the first ball and misled Bucci, but found the right post of the keeper. Massimo Crippa was precise, 1:0. Moshe Glam bombed it home, 1:1. Lorenzo Menotti shot the ball to the left corner of Rafi Cohen, the latter guessed the corner, but could do nothing, 2:1. Alon Harazi shot it to his left, a weak ball which Luca Bucci parried. Tomas Brolin misled Rafi Cohen with a charming ball, 3:1.

The kick of Reuven Attar was the last opportunity of Haifa to stay alive. Attar shot a bomb to the left corner of Bucci, the keeper threw himself into a desperate flight, stretched his right hand over his head, and deflected the ball into the post and out. A fabulous save to end the story.

The game ended with all the cameras focused on the handshake of two great stars of this game, Luca Bucci and Rafi Cohen.

GIORA SPIEGEL, Haifa's Coach: "My players were tired, but still did the maximum they could. Still, we can't do a thousand steps in one year we are in Europe. I'm smiling, as my players did their best, but the experience of Parma players and their ability during the penalty shoot-out were better than ours".

ALON MIZRAHI, the goal scorer: "That was a wonderful achievement for all the Israeli football, but the destiny can be cruel sometimes. The reason for our loss on aggregate is a last minute goal of Thomas Brolin in Haifa, and not the penalty shoot-out. That's right, I've scored, but I've also missed. The applauses are deserved by all the players of our team. Soccer means experience, and there is no doubt that Parma had more experience, at least as far as it comes to the penalty kicks. But at any rate, we showed the world that we can play as equals with any European team, and I believe that in the future we'll succeed even more".

REUVEN ATTAR: "We've lost at the penalty shoot-out, and this is another proof for the fact we were just unlucky. The keeper misled us, as he had taken a different corner every time. I'm satisfied with our skill, but it's disappointing we haven't advanced to the quarterfinals".

EYAL BERKOVICH: "The feelings are mixed. We've played a wonderful game, and I personally think it was also a wonderful game of mine. We've lost after all because of the quality gap, and because of the additional experience Parma's players had. But Parma "suffered", and this pleases me. We played in the same style, and we made a life hard for them".

RONNIE LEVI: "Most of our players play in the National Team, and that gave a lot for our calmness at such a high arena. We've expected the harder opening of Parma, but they enabled us to develop the game we're used to play. The hardest part was in the last minutes of the extra-time, when somehow we managed not to be broken under their constant attacks".

MOSHE GLAM: "After all, we weren't falling from Parma. We deserve all the credit. We were so close. I'm sure that the next year we'll do better".

ALON HARAZI: "This is a great achievement of Maccabee Haifa. After all, I'm disappointed with the result, as we were prepared greatly and wanted to defeat Parma on aggregate".

GIORGIO FIORDANESCCI, Parma's President: "They [Maccabee Haifa. - M.M.] made a life hard for us in this game. The Israeli team surprised us, and in a certain moment, when Zola missed a penalty kick, we thought this was a magic evening, and the magic was playing against us".

NEVIO SCALA, Parma's Coach: "That was a bad evening of ours. We should've ended the game in the 1st half, but we were neither precise nor concentrated".

ARRIGO SACCHI, Italian National Team Coach: "I came here to see some of Parma players, but I was impressed more by the Israelis. They surprised everybody, they played very well. The most important - they played calmly, not nerved, and they managed to shock the defence of Parma".