After their players rejoiced at our triumph in Wales, disparaging us a bit, many “Azzurra” football experts underestimated us these days, which was also done by the great Fabio Capello, we are increasingly “hostile” towards the next opponent. Judging by the heated social networks.
In the DNA of our national team
However, there is absolutely no need for such an attitude. Nor is it justified. First of all, it is normal that the “greats” who missed the last two World Cups use “anything and everything”. It is not that it is not in their mentality. But?
Italians are our true friends. Friends in need.
Have you forgotten where we were hosts when, after the aggression against our country and the painful war scars, we still could not play on the soil of Bosnia and Herzegovina?! Italian friends gave us shelter. So, we played our first domestic qualifying match in Italy.
It was on October 8, 1996. Duel against Croatia in Bologna. We lost 1:4 in the qualifying match for the World Cup “France 1998”, but we were forever attached to Italy. They got under our skin in the DNA of the national team, because it was on the territory of their country that we scored the first goal in competitive matches. The super talent of Bosnian and European football at the time, Hasan Salihamidžić – Braco, scored against the Croats.
A spectacle that never fades
The “frogs” as we jokingly call them, perhaps sometimes with tasteless humor, are the most responsible for the return of normal life to Bosnia and Herzegovina. They came to visit us on November 6, 1996. Not even a month after they gave us the household. At the “Asim Ferhatović Hase – Koševo” Olympic Stadium, we enthusiastically welcomed one of the strongest national teams in the world, with all their stars and coach Arrigo Sacchi. The friendly match was watched by 40,000 enthusiastic people. And we won 2:1, with goals from Elvir Bolić and Salihamidžić. Sacchi was fired not long after because he lost to outsiders, then the youngest formed national team in Europe.
Do you remember?! A sports spectacle that does not fade even three decades later.
The visit of “Azzurra” at the war-ravaged stadium, which only a few months earlier was only 200, 300 meters away from the front line, decided that FIFA and UEFA would allow us to play domestic matches at home in the future. Thanks to the lobby of the Italians, but also to the impeccably organized match without a single incident.
Therefore, let Zenica be like 1996 in Sarajevo. Without a single incident, with thunderous applause for the anthem of Italy.
Thanks, friends. Welcome. (Thanks, friends. Welcome).
Bakir Tiro
(Vijesti.ba)
