When three-time world champions and hosts of the 1990 World Cup, Italy, faced an Argentina team looking to retain the trophy they won at Mexico 1986 two footballing giants prepared to do battle in a mouth-watering semi-final which also provided the ultimate club versus country conundrum.
The game between two of the game’s most prolific sides promised to be an all-time classic in a tournament which had captured the imagination of millions with many expecting the clash to be one of the most vibrant and unforgettable matches of the whole competition. However, there was a twist.
The venue for the match would be the Estadio San Paolo in Naples; the very city whose football club had been transformed from the “Little Donkey” of Italian football to the greatest side in the land thanks mostly to Diego Maradona’s seven year stay in the city he now called home and where he was worshipped.
What Maradona had done while playing for Napoli is almost unprecedented, not just in football but sport as a whole, taking the relatively unfashionable outfit of Italy’s deep south from ultimate outsiders to the top of the pile almost single-handedly, winning two Serie A titles (one just a matter of weeks before the World Cup kicked-off) and the UEFA Cup in just four years.
His role with the national side was not too dissimilar either. At Mexico ’86 Maradona had all but carried the nation’s hopes on his stocky shoulders from the first game to the final which they won against West Germany and now, four years later, the country expected great things of him once more.
Scraping through the group stage as best placed runners-up Argentina needed penalties to defeat Yugoslavia in a dreadful Second Round tie before a delectable dribble and sublime through ball for Claudio Caniggia to score the only goal against Brazil in the Quarter-Final provided one of the most iconic images of the tournament and set-up a meeting with Italy in Naples.
Never one to miss a trick the ever-divisive Diego saw his opportunity to capitalise on the long-running sociocultural and political perceptions which had often dogged Naples’ relationship with the rest of the country while exploiting the tensions which existed between the relatively underdeveloped south and the more prosperous north which were represented by footballing powerhouses such as AC Milan and Juventus.
Italy’s squad for that tournament was far from representative either and contained no less than 14 players from the larger clubs in the north of the country with Fernando De Napoli, Ciro Ferrara and Andrea Carnevale the only Napoli players in the 22.
In an act which resembled a military coup Maradona called upon the Neapolitans to decide just whose side they were on and made his feelings quite clear in a pre-match press conference which was more akin to a Hollywood premier than a media gathering.
"For 364 days out of the year,” he announced. “You [Neapolitans] are considered to be foreigners in your own country: today you must do what they want by supporting the national team. Instead, I am a Neapolitan for 365 days out of the year.
"I don't like the fact that now everyone is asking the Neapolitans to be Italian and to support their national team. Naples has always been marginalised by the rest of Italy. It is a city that suffers the most unfair racism."
Somewhat torn by their hero’s plea, locals found themselves divided when it came to where their allegiances should lie, something which was evident in the messages that were scrawled on banners and hung around the stadium that night when Argentina met the tournament hosts on July 3 1990.
“Diego in our hearts, Italy in our songs.” 'Maradona, Naples loves you but Italy is our homeland,” they read. While more hard-line ultras were less diplomatic, making their support for Argentina over Italy very clear to all.
When the game eventually started it was Italy who took the lead after just 17 minutes through the man who would win the golden boot at Italia ’90, Toto Schillaci; but once again and inspired by their skipper Argentina hit back when, after some neat work from Maradona in the build-up, Claudio Caniggia headed home Olarticoechea's cross with 20 minutes left.
With the game still level after extra-time the outcome would be decided by a penalty shoot-out which Argentina won 4-3 after Carlos Bilardo's team converted all their spot kicks while Donadoni and Serena missed for Italy.
“The Argentinian national anthem, for the first time in the whole World Cup, was applauded from beginning to end,” Maradona later wrote when he reflected on that night. “For me that was already a victory. I was moved: these were my people."
However, the fact that his house in the city was later attacked by rampaging Italian fans goes to show just how much this volatile encounter at the World Cup of 1990 not just called into question the moral standing of a city and its people; but tested the loyalties of a nation divided along both footballing and social economic lines.
