Just a few months earlier, team boss Franz Beckenbauer caused a scandal at the World Cup in Mexico when he threatened a journalist with violence in front of the camera – now he freaked out again after the DFB team’s historic defeat in Vienna. In his opinion, the referee was largely to blame for the 4-1 win for Austria!
“The Agnolin, this man is dangerous to the public!” Team boss Franz Beckenbauer could no longer be calmed down after the clear defeat in the newly opened Prater Stadium in Vienna on that memorable October 29, 1986. The Austrian national team had devastatingly beaten the German team 4-1 – and for the Kaiser, only the referee from Italy was to blame for the German debacle.
Toni “Doppelpack” Polster, who himself contributed his usual two goals to his team’s triumph that day, would write years later in his autobiography: “Cordoba, second act, this time in Vienna.” Before, he and his compatriots had hoped for a reasonable defeat – now the Austrians were feasting on the unexpected success over their “big brother”.
The frustration on the German side was deep. The gymnastics and sports teacher from the idyllic Bassano del Grappa in the Veneto region, Luigi Agnolin, whistled two penalties against the DFB team. All observers on site agreed that both penalties were from the category “you can give them, but you don’t have to”. Franz Beckenbauer himself had previously said about the man from Italy: “Luigi Agnolin is the best referee in the world.”
Matthew also freaks out
But that may have been mainly due to his own positive memory of the man. Just a few months earlier, Agnolin had refereed the German team in the semi-finals of the World Cup in Mexico. And back then, the DFB team had knocked the French out of the tournament 2-0 in Guadalajara. But Agnolin was also generally considered an excellent referee who, in addition to his native language, also spoke French, English and German fluently. Perhaps that was exactly what proved to be Lothar Matthäus’ downfall that evening in Vienna.
In addition to the two controversial penalties that completely freaked Franz Beckenbauer out, it was also the red card that his playmaker received in the 64th minute. Despite “Luigi, the playmaker in black” (“Kicker”), it was still 1-1 after 63 minutes when the Italian whistled his second strike of the day. The German press afterwards agreed that this second penalty should never have been given as Toni Polster had previously held German defender Wolfgang Funkel, but Luigi Agnolin pointed to the spot.
And after Toni Polster had safely converted for the second time (“Calm down, Eike Immel had no chance”), Lothar Matthäus must have blown his fuse too. In any case, the referee held the red card in his face immediately after Austria’s goal. Whether or what Matthäus had said could never be clarified exactly because the midfield strategist was not aware of any guilt after the game: “I just raised my shoulders at the penalty.”
“If he has anything on his mind at all”
For his coach, however, that was the decisive moment of the game, when the game finally tipped in favor of the kickers from the Alpine republic solely because of the man in black. Already on the sidelines, Beckenbauer gave vent to his displeasure and, as observers later said, behaved like a “little devil”. But Luigi Agnolin only had to take the full blow after the encounter in Vienna’s Prater Stadium. In front of the assembled press, the team boss called him a “stinker” who needed to work on his mind if he had “anything on his mind at all.”
A scandal that resonated even longer, because Beckenbauer had already caused a scandal at the World Cup in Mexico when he threatened a local journalist live on German TV: “Then he would be dead by now. I only need a moment with the little Mexican If you press it shut, it will no longer exist.”
“Such games are not the norm”
While the Kaiser’s harsh words were discussed in Germany after the memorable game (Frankfurt’s coach at the time, Dietrich Weise, described them succinctly as “disgusting”) and the sporting disgrace was somewhat forgotten, in Austria people are still celebrating to this day this victory as a “great moment” (Toni Polster). The legendary 4-1 win in the newly renovated and converted Vienna Prater Stadium on October 29, 1986 will certainly be remembered again during the game between the two teams on Tuesday evening.
Because the double penalty scorer from back then, Toni Polster, knows: “Such games are not the norm.” They shouldn’t be for Franz Beckenbauer either. In the years that followed, the team boss got better and better at controlling his anger after defeats. Even though what Paul Breitner once said about him certainly always counted until the end of his professional career: “Franz has never been able to lose.”