The legendary night in Athens: HSV plays phenomenally, Juventus reacts brutally

40 years ago Hamburger SV was on top. In the final of the European Cup of Champions, the Hanseatic League had beaten the highly favored team of Juventus Turin. Even a nasty elbow blow couldn’t spoil the celebration!

“I’ve never seen Happel and the team so relaxed as they were in that game,” said then-manager Günter Netzer, later recalling that legendary night on May 25, 1983 – when Hamburger SV defeated the national champions Juventus Turin in the final of the European Cup and brought the trophy to the Hanseatic city. In his book about Happel, “Thank you, Ernst!”, ORF radio sports director Heinz Prüller once wrote: “Hamburger SV – no chance for anyone. The Italians are celebrated beforehand, have banderoles printed for the European Cup winner in ’83, festivals are planned in Greece.” Netzer smiled after the triumph: “But none of that affected us!”

40 years later, Italy’s goalkeeping legend, the keeper of the then HSV opponent Juventus Turin, Dino Zoff, no longer wants to know anything about this false euphoria before the game: “That’s all nonsense! Of course we were favored – Italy was world champion, and we also had Platini. So everyone was betting on us. But since we thought about the after-game celebration before the game, let’s not exaggerate.” But overall, the football experts agreed that HSV only had an outsider chance in Athens in front of 77,000 spectators – including over 50,000 supporters of the Italian subscription champions Juve.

“A glorious hit, a glorious hit!”

But that’s exactly what Hamburg used on this magical night after just eight minutes – when Felix Magath scored the goal of the day with his shot from the left-hand position into the top right corner. The NDR reporter Fritz Klein commented on the sealed Italian fate almost boisterously for his standards: “A wonderful goal, a wonderful goal!”

This early goal also meant that the otherwise grumpy HSV coach Ernst Happel always liked to look back on this special game: “The first half in Athens – I crossed my arms and thought: There’s nothing It’s not nicer in a church either.” Long after his career ended, Felix Magath was still overcome with warm feelings when he thought back to his decisive goal in the 1983 final: “My most famous goal. It still happens today that Italians thank me for it and give me champagne. Of course, these are not Juventus fans.”

‘They played Liverpool-style football’

Happel’s eleven, which he had casually prepared for the game that evening on a golf course (!) on the day of the final, actually only had two real moments of shock to survive. One, when keeper Uli Stein knocked down Juve’s star player Platini in the penalty area fifteen minutes before the end and was lucky that the referee didn’t award a penalty. And the other when Lars Bastrup had his jaw broken by the Italian Claudio Gentile with an elbow – on purpose. A bad number that had a grotesque aftermath, as manager Netzer later recalled: “Bastrup and Gentile were drawn for the doping test, I found that incredible. And then the two sat in a small room and Lars wanted to go for the Italian , he couldn’t calm down at all. He didn’t understand that a player could do something so brutal to an opponent. I stood between them and tried to mediate, but it was very difficult.” Hours later, Bastrup sat at the victory celebration and drank champagne from a sippy cup, his face contorted with pain.

After this evening and the surprising success of the Hanseatic League, the media were full of praise for HSV. Even the English “Daily Express” wrote an ode to the winners: “The people of Hamburg are the kings of Europe. They played football Liverpool-style. The eleven made famous in England by Kevin Keegan looked really English in the red striped jerseys .” And the “kicker” saw the “HSV at the goal of his dreams.” 40 years later, world champion Dino Zoff soberly analyzed: “Hamburg was simply better than us. That often happens in sport when you already think you’re stronger.”

“That alone mitigates the disappointment”

At the time, Juve’s honorary president for life, Giovanni Agnelli, tried to comfort his club and his team in other ways: “We have to tell ourselves that we were beaten by a great team. That alone mitigates the disappointment.” But the defeat on the night of Athens is still heavy on the stomachs of many Juve supporters. And how was the mood at HSV?

He left Athens at 6 a.m. the morning after winning the title (Happel: “So that no photo reporters ambush us”). The Austrian HSV successful coach had given the championship as his next goal – and therefore only gave his team a brief pause. In Hamburg itself there were no official celebrations at all. On the contrary: the crew had hardly landed at the airport when they immediately slipped down a side aisle. The waiting fans were disappointed, but coach Happel had already scheduled a morning training session at Ochsenzoll. After all, the 33rd matchday awaited the team at the weekend. And it worked: HSV beat BVB 5-0 and, with their own victory in Gelsenkirchen’s Park Stadium, could no longer be caught by competitor Werder Bremen.

And indeed: just a week and a half after the triumph in Athens, Hamburger SV also won the German championship with a 2-1 win over Schalke. But what should come after this legendary double victory for HSV in the future? The “kicker” had bad thoughts. Under the heading “The fear of winning to death”, he wrote: “The people of Hamburg fear that they could bore and put off their fans with too many victories.” However, as we now know, this concern was unfounded. Only in 1987 did Hamburg win another title with the DFB Cup – otherwise HSV fans have been dreaming back to the days of early summer 1983 when the club and its supporters were the “kings of Europe” for a moment .