A NAIL IN THE CATENNACIO'S COFFIN

May 25th 1967.

The continental reign of Helenio Herrera and his Internationale team began in the first round of the 1963/4 European Cup (as the major competition was called back then) when they "shut up shop" against Everton at Goodison Park for a goaless draw. They then took the Merseysiders back to the San Siro and scored a single home goal from Jair. Four seasons later it was comprehensively ended by one. Inter's win over Everton had been Europe's first exposure to Herrera's CATENACCIO-the famous "sliding bolt" system, using a sweeper, relentless man for man marking with an occasional break away upfield, on the counter attack led by the powerful genius os Sandro Mazzola.

Herrera had attempted to play an attacking game in Europe in his place as Barcelona manager, but he had been "picked off" in the 1960 European Cup semi-finals by Real Madrid. With Inter, he esas taking no chances and the tactic worked. After beating Everton, Inter went into the Final, where his plan "stifled" an ageing Real Madrid and picked them off to win 3-1. They retained their cup the year after an even more tedious display, grinding out a 1-0 victory in the final against Benfica.

Inter lost a tight 1966 semi-final to Read Madrid, but were back in the final a year later. They faced Celtic!! whose philosophy was exactly opposite to Herrera's stifling "catennacio". Celtic manager Jock Stein said before the game "I will tell him how Celtic will win but it will not help him in any manner, shape or form; we are going to attack as we have never attacked before"  and that is what happened! Early on, Inter's Mazzola took advantage of his team's early attacks by converting a penalty after just 6 minutes. Their natutral instinct was to sit back and defend which suited Celtic, whose players were all born within 30 miles of Parkhead!! Celtic had 39 attempts at goal in the next 84 minutes as Inter offered only 2! After an hour Tommy Gemmell (below) hit a 25 yard screamer with two players offside, then with seven minutes left, Steve Chalmers hammerd home the final nail into the "Catenaccio's Coffin"!!