1996 Intercontinental Cup

1996 Intercontinental Cup
Match programme cover
Juventus River Plate
Italy Argentina
1 0
Date26 November 1996
VenueNational Stadium, Tokyo
Man of the MatchAlessandro Del Piero (Juventus)[1]
RefereeMárcio Rezende de Freitas (Brazil)[2]
Attendance48,305[2]

The 1996 Intercontinental Cup was a football match between Juventus of Italy and River Plate of Argentina on 26 November 1996 at the National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. The annual Intercontinental Cup, it was contested between the winners of the UEFA Champions League and the Copa Libertadores. Juventus were appearing in their third Intercontinental Cup. They had lost the competition in the 1973 Intercontinental Cup before winning the 1985 edition. River Plate were making their second appearance after their victory in the 1986 edition.

The teams had qualified for the competition by winning their respective continent's primary cup competition. Juventus won the 1995–96 UEFA Champions League by beating Dutch team AFC Ajax 4–2 in the final in a penalty shoot-out after the match finished 1–1. River Plate were the 1996 Copa Libertadores champions after winning the two-legged final 2–1 against América de Cali of Colombia.

Watched by a crowd of 48,305, the match featured a goalless first half where Juventus applied a consistent pressure on the Argentines. River Plate failed to combat this with their plan of a more techinal style of play. In the second half, the team would create more chances on Juventus' box. However, it was the Italians who took the lead late in the game when Alessandro Del Piero scored in the 81st minute. They held this lead in the remaining nine minutes to win the match 1–0, securing their second Intercontinental Cup win.

Background

The National Stadium in Tokyo hosted the match

The 1996 Intercontinental Cup was 35th edition of the Intercontinental Cup, a yearly association football match contested between the champions of the UEFA Champions League and the Copa Libertadores.[3] The first edition of the match was in 1960, which was won Spanish club Real Madrid after beating Uruguayan club Peñarol 5–1 on aggregate.[4] By the late 1970s, the yearly matches were struggling,[5] many European champions had withdrawn from the competition and left them to the runners-up due to various matches ending in serious fights.[3] In 1980, British company West Nally had discussions Japanese advertising company Dentsu and Japanese car company Toyota to support the InterSoccer4 program. Toyota proposed to make an event for them, after learning about the Intercontinental Cup they decided to remake it to the Toyota Cup.[6] The first match under Toyota's name would be the 1980 Intercontinental Cup, won by Club Nacional de Football.[7]

Juventus qualified for the Intercontinental Cup as a result of winning the UEFA Champions League. They won the 1995–96 UEFA Champions League by beating Dutch team AFC Ajax in the final, in a 4–2 in a penalty shoot-out after the match finished 1–1. This was their third appearance in the competition. Juventus had first played Independiente in the 1973 edition, losing 1–0. In 1985 they faced Argentinos Juniors, who they beat in a penalty shoot-out, after the match finished 2–2. River Plate qualified for the Intercontinental Cup as the reigning 1996 Copa Libertadores champions. They beat América de Cali of Colombia 2–1 on aggregate to win their second Copa Libertadores. River Plate were making their second appearance in the competition. Their previous appearance in the 1986 edition resulted in a 1–0 win against Romanian team Steaua București.[3]

Juventus' last match before the Intercontinental Cup was against AC Milan in the 1996–97 Serie A, which finished in a goalless draw.[8] The last match River Plate played before the competition was against San Lorenzo in the 1996 Torneo Apertura. They won 4–0 courtesy of two goals from Julio Cruz and one apiece from Marcelo Salas and Ramón Medina Bello.[9]

Match

Summary

First half

From the start of the match, Juventus applied consistent pressure, as they looked to negate River Plate from orchestrating any opportunity product of their ball possession. For this purpose, they positioned their defense high up the field, and managed to suffocate their opposition courtesy of their anticipatory defending and recoveries by the midfield of Didier Deschamps, Angelo Di Livio and Vladimir Jugović.[10] This allowed them to catch the opposition attackers offside twice.[11] The Argentines tried to combat this deficit by playing a more technical style of football, but failed to do so in their attempts.[12] In one occasion, River Plate were denied a chance when the assistant referee raised his flag, halting the play even though defenders Paolo Montero and Sergio Porrini were caught on a late run.[13] Nonetheless, the Juventus game plan rendered the Argentine team unable to get ahold of the ball. In the midst of this pressure, goalkeeper Roberto Bonano stepped up to hold off the scoring prospects from the Italians, denying Alen Bokšić three times. Juan Pablo Sorín also contributed to maintaining the tie by saving a shot from Zinedine Zidane that was headed for the net. In response to this pressure, River Plate were only able to force a couple corner kicks. The offensive line for their side would produce their first shot on target at the 38-minute mark, through attacking midfielder Enzo Francescoli.[10] In total, Juventus registered eight shots on target, while their opposition managed two. Nevertheless, the goalless scoreline remained at half-time.[11]

Second half

The Argentine side made a recovery in the second half, as they managed ball possession in Juventus' half. During this time, the Italians started to rely on fouls to prevent their chances.[11] Although this caused their attacks to lack depth, River Plate were able to threaten their opposition through crosses.[10] Francescoli stepped up for his team, taking the set pieces, and managing to funnel danger into the Juventus area. In the 51st minute, his first delivery met Sorín, whose header went wide. A minute later, a follow-up cross was connected by Eduardo Berizzo, but the centre-back sent the ball across the goal.[11] The Italian side continued to have scoring prospects thanks to their offensive line, but Bonano kept fending off their efforts.[10] Among them, he successfully defended header from striker Alessandro Del Piero in the 57th minute.[14]

Alessandro Del Piero, who scored the solitary goal of the match.

At the 74-minute mark, River Plate manager Ramón Díaz made the first substitution of the match when he subbed Leonel Gancedo in for fellow midfielder Sergio Berti.[10] Shortly after, the Argentine team had another chance through a free kick from Francescoli, which Hernán Díaz headed wide. Right afterward, their side would have their clearest opportunity through a play from the right, in which Roberto Monserrat linked up with the full-back.[11] The sequence would eventually give way to a passing play involving Francescoli and Ariel Ortega, which resulted in the forward rattling the crossbar.[10] Following the finish, Juventus goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi brought down Ortega inside the area, but the action went unnoticed by Brazilian referee Márcio Rezende de Freitas.[13] Nine minutes from injury time, the Italians found the opening goal after a Di Livio corner was followed up through a Zidane header.[14] The ball then fell to Del Piero, who unleashed a shot from the edge of the six-yard box to put his team ahead.[10][2] River Plate attempted to launch two responses at an equaliser, but the efforts from Gancedo and Celso Ayala were unsuccessful.[11] In between shots, they also switched strikers by replacing Julio Cruz with Marcelo Salas. Although Juventus possessed counter-attacking chances, neither squad managed to score any further goals, and thus the match ended 1–0 to the Italians.[10]

Details

Juventus Italy1–0Argentina River Plate
Del Piero 81' Report
Attendance: 48,305[2]
Juventus
River Plate
GK 1 Italy Angelo Peruzzi
RB 3 Italy Moreno Torricelli Yellow card 82'
CB 2 Italy Ciro Ferrara
CB 4 Uruguay Paolo Montero Yellow card 51'
LB 5 Italy Sergio Porrini Yellow card 67'
DM 14 France Didier Deschamps
RM 7 Italy Angelo Di Livio (c)
LM 18 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Vladimir Jugović Yellow card 50'
AM 21 France Zinedine Zidane Yellow card 84' downward-facing red arrow 89'
CF 9 Croatia Alen Bokšić
CF 10 Italy Alessandro Del Piero
Substitutes:
GK 12 Italy Michelangelo Rampulla
DF 13 Italy Mark Iuliano
MF 20 Italy Alessio Tacchinardi upward-facing green arrow 89'
MF 19 Italy Attilio Lombardo
MF 26 Italy Raffaele Ametrano
FW 11 Italy Michele Padovano
FW 15 Italy Christian Vieri
Manager:
Italy Marcello Lippi
GK 1 Argentina Roberto Bonano
RB 4 Argentina Hernán Díaz
CB 2 Paraguay Celso Ayala
CB 6 Argentina Eduardo Berizzo
LB 3 Argentina Juan Pablo Sorín
DM 5 Argentina Leonardo Astrada Yellow card 38'
RM 8 Argentina Roberto Monserrat
LM 11 Argentina Sergio Berti downward-facing red arrow 74'
AM 9 Uruguay Enzo Francescoli (c)
CF 10 Argentina Ariel Ortega
CF 7 Argentina Julio Cruz downward-facing red arrow 83'
Substitutes:
GK 12 Argentina Germán Burgos
DF 13 Argentina Guillermo Rivarola
MF 18 Argentina Leonel Gancedo upward-facing green arrow 74'
MF 19 Argentina Marcelo Escudero
MF 20 Argentina Marcelo Gallardo
FW 21 Argentina Ramón Medina Bello
FW 16 Chile Marcelo Salas upward-facing green arrow 83'
Manager:
Argentina Ramón Díaz

Man of the Match:
Italy Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus)[1]

Post-match

After the end of the match, celebrations of Juventus fans started in Milan and in the main streets of Turin, where they played horns and trumpets in means of celebration and displayed their banners of the club.[14] Meanwhile in Japan, Del Piero received a Toyota car worth around 31,000$ US dollars (equivalent to $64,262 as February 2026) for winning man of the match.[12][15] Diaz talked positively on the match despite his team's defeat. Calling it incredible, and that due to their defeat they managed to get great experience on how is it to become world champions.[14] His Italian counterpart, Marcello Lippi, agreed with him, however he stated that it could've been a better match if low temperatures weren't present during it.[12]

Juventus reached the final of the 1996–97 UEFA Champions League, which they lost to Borussia Dortmund 3–1.[16] They would win the 1996–97 Serie A, however, which qualified them to the 1997–98 edition of the tournament.[8] River Plate followed a similar suit, as they were also unable to retain their respective continental title.[17] Nevertheless, they were crowned champions of the 1996 Torneo Apertura, the first of the three consecutive league titles they would go on to win.[18]

Juventus doping allegations

In November 2004, club doctor Riccardo Agricola was given a 22-month prison sentence and fined €2,000 for sporting fraud by providing performance-enhancing drugs, specifically erythropoietin, to players between 1994 and 1998,[19][20] Leading hematologist Giuseppe d'Onofrio said that it was "practically certain" that midfielders Antonio Conte and Alessio Tacchinardi had taken erythropoietin to overcome brief bouts of anemia, and that it was "very probable" that seven other players – Alessandro Birindelli, Alessandro Del Piero, Didier Deschamps, Dimas, Paolo Montero, Gianluca Pessotto and Moreno Torricelli – had taken erythropoietin in small doses.[21] Diaz stated after the fact that it was a possibility that Juventus doped on the match, elaborating further and saying that "you could see that there was a huge physical difference" not only compared to his team, but to other Italian clubs as well.[22][23]

In April 2005, the Court of Arbitration for Sport gave the following advisory opinion, in part: "The use of pharmaceutical substances which are not expressly prohibited by sports law, and which cannot be considered as substances similar or related to those expressly prohibited, is not to be sanctioned by disciplinary measures. However, regardless of the existence or not of any judgement rendered by a State court, sports authorities are under the obligation to prosecute the use of pharmaceutical substances which are prohibited by sports law or any other anti-doping rule violation in order to adopt disciplinary measures."[24] In December 2005, Agricola was acquitted of the charges by Turin's court of appeal.[25] In March 2007, in the final verdict by the Supreme Court of Cassation, stated that "in the years of 1994 to 1998 there was no ascertained positive case of doping substances by Juventus players, that the purchase of erythropoietin or its administration to the athletes of the club does not emerge from any act of the trial, and that the same expert had identified the possibility of an administration of erythropoietin in distant terms from the sure evidence ("very probable" and in two cases "practically certain"): it is that therefore, the judgement of probability and not of certainty, did not allow for a statement of responsibility."[26] The verdict also went on to say: "In response to the conclusion taken, the territorial court notes that there were no deferred values higher than the limits set in the various antidoping protocols and that the situation of the Juventus players, both with reference to the average hematological values, and in relation to that of material balance, did not differ from the national average population.[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Toyota Cup - Most Valuable Player of the Match Award". RSSSF. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d "Intercontinental Club Cup 1996". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  3. ^ a b c Magnani, Loris; Stokkermans, Karel. "Intercontinental Club Cup". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
  4. ^ Gorgazzi, Osvaldo José. "Intercontinental Club Cup 1960". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 17 December 2025.
  5. ^ Williamson 2022, p. 1, section 8.
  6. ^ Williamson 2022, pp. 2–3, section 8.
  7. ^ Gorgazzi, Osvaldo José. "Intercontinental Club Cup 1980". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 17 December 2025.
  8. ^ a b Mariani, Maurizio. "Italy Championship 1996/97". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  9. ^ King, Ian; Ciullini, Pablo. "Argentina 1996/97". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Mauri, Claudio (27 November 1996). "River a la deriva y sin excusas". LA NACION (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  11. ^ a b c d e f Álvarez, Robert (27 November 1996). "Del Piero corona a la Juventus". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 12 February 2026.
  12. ^ a b c "'Juve' logra Copa Intercontinental". El Nuevo Herald. 27 November 1996. p. 22. Retrieved 14 February 2026.
  13. ^ a b "A 27 años de la polémica Final entre River y Juventus por la Copa Intercontinental 1996". Bolavip Argentina (in Spanish). 26 November 2023. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  14. ^ a b c d "JUVENTUS, BICAMPEÓN DE LA INTERCONTINENTAL". El Tiempo (in Spanish). 27 November 1996. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  15. ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  16. ^ Ross, James M. "European Competitions 1996-97". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  17. ^ Ciullini, Pablo; Stokkermans, Karel. "Copa Libertadores 1997". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  18. ^ Gorgazzi, Osvaldo José; Kurhy, Víctor Hugo. "Final Tables Argentina 1991-2000". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  19. ^ "Juve doctor convicted of doping". UEFA. 26 November 2004.
  20. ^ "Judge Convicts Juventus Doctor". Associated Press. 26 November 2004. Archived from the original on 27 September 2022.
  21. ^ Dunne, Frank (1 December 2004). "The drug scandal that blackens the name of Juve's team of the Nineties". The Independent.
  22. ^ Mazza, Giuseppe (23 May 2013). "Juve vinse con doping: l'Ajax reclama la Champions 1996". CalcioWeb (in Italian). Retrieved 14 February 2026.
  23. ^ "Un informe reveló que River perdió en 1996 contra una Juventus dopada". LA NACION (in Spanish). 23 May 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2026.
  24. ^ "ADVISORY OPINION Pronounced by the COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT" (PDF). coni.it. 26 April 2005. p. 27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 June 2012.
  25. ^ "Juventus doctor wins doping appeal". UEFA. 14 December 2005.
  26. ^ a b "Repubblica Italiana La Corte Suprema Cassazione Sezione Seconda Penale In Nome Del Popolo Italiano" (PDF). Supreme Court of Cassation. 29 March 2007. pp. 40–42. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 September 2011.

Bibliography

  • Williamson, Daniel (18 July 2022). When Two Worlds Collide. Pitch Publishing. ISBN 978-1-80150-145-3.
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