In October 1971, Borussia Mönchengladbach overrun Inter Milan 7:1, but the result is annulled – presumably because of an exhibition game.
A storming run by the Foals, one of the greatest days in German European Cup history, a victory like something out of a picture book: Borussia Mönchengladbach rolled over Inter Milan 7:1 in the round of 16 of the national champions on 20 October 1971. But it is not only magnificent goals that the fans talk about the day after this memorable football demonstration. For in the 28th minute, Inter striker Roberto Boninsegna had fallen to the ground at 2-1, allegedly hit in the head by a soda can.
Kicking in the second leg
The Italian is carried off the pitch, the game is resumed, but after the game Inter’s officials lodge a protest. With success: the game has to be replayed, the outstanding performance of the German champions is suddenly worth nothing. Because of an actor? Was Boninsegna even hit? Could he really not continue?
“Of course not,” the striker still maintains today. 77 in the meantime, he lives in Mantua. The man who played an, how appropriate, Inter Milan footballer in the 1983 film “Nobody hits like Don Camillo” with Terence Hill stands by his account of being hit in the head by a full can in the scene in question. “Nonsense,” said Luggi Müller, Boninsegna’s opponent at the time, in contrast. “I kicked this can afterwards, which was lying on the ground. It was empty. And besides, he was only hit on the shoulder.”
Be that as it may: the match has to be played again, and not only Mönchengladbach players, officials and fans feel cheated of a glorious victory by Boninsegna’s acting interlude. But first the return match takes place in Milan, Inter win 4:2. The second edition of the first leg is played in Berlin and degenerates into a rough kicking game in which the Italians cannot be overcome. In the end the score is 0:0, Gladbach is out, Inter even marches through to the final, where they lose 0:2 against Ajax Amsterdam.
“This thing,” said Luggi Müller, who died in 2021, even decades later, “was an acting masterstroke.” A UEFA official assessed the injury during the break and he suffered a bump on the head, Boninsegna claims. He was unconscious on the pitch for 15 to 20 seconds, the Italian recalls, while Müller experienced the scene quite differently: “He immediately got up again, but then suddenly collapsed when one of his team-mates talked down to him. The injury can’t have been that bad. “
Who threw the can?
In keeping with the highly opaque events, the can-thrower was never convicted. Although a Gladbach fan was initially arrested, his innocence was subsequently proven beyond doubt; the matter came to nothing. The can in question was secured at the Bökelberg by referee Jef Dorpmans; it was initially on display in the club museum of his club Vitesse Arnhem. In the meantime, it has found its way to Borussia.
Luggi Müller, of course, carried away a very different kind of souvenir of these memorable encounters. In the tough replay in Berlin, he had another duel with his opponent Boninsegna shortly before the final whistle and both fell to the ground. But only one of them was carried off the pitch: Müller, who suffered a fractured tibia and fibula and had to take nine months off. If the glorious first leg victory had counted, if that almost incomprehensible 7:1 had counted, then this serious injury would never have happened either.
