Euro 88 Day 1 Review: Italy Make Their Point as West Germany Survive the Opener
West Germany 1–1 Italy
Rheinstadion, Düsseldorf — 10 June 1988
Goals: Roberto Mancini 53′, Andreas Brehme 56′
Euro 88 began without fireworks on the scoreboard.
It didn’t need them.
West Germany and Italy walked into Düsseldorf carrying two of European football’s heaviest shirts, and 90 minutes later they walked away level — but with very different reasons to be satisfied.
For the hosts, it was a point rescued.
For Italy, it felt like an announcement.
Welcome to Euro 88
There is something beautifully compact about this tournament.
Eight teams. Two groups. No round of 16. No quarterfinals. Finish in the top two and you’re in the semifinals. Finish anywhere else and you’re going home.
That meant there was almost no room for a slow start.
And on opening night, the hosts were immediately handed Italy.
Franz Beckenbauer’s West Germany contained Lothar Matthäus, Rudi Völler, Pierre Littbarski and a young Jürgen Klinsmann.
Azeglio Vicini answered with Franco Baresi, Giuseppe Bergomi, Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto Donadoni, Gianluca Vialli — and a 19-year-old Paolo Maldini.
Not a bad way to start a European Championship.
Italy Looked Like the Team With the Idea
The surprise wasn’t that Italy competed with West Germany.
It was how comfortable they looked doing it.
This was not simply an Italian side sitting deep and waiting for the hosts to make a mistake. Vicini’s team pressed aggressively and repeatedly made West Germany uncomfortable in possession.
UEFA’s retrospective of the match describes Italy’s young side as having much the better of an entertaining contest, with their pressing forcing errors from the hosts.
Donadoni was particularly influential.
Italy had movement. They had energy. And behind it all sat a defensive unit containing Baresi, Bergomi, Riccardo Ferri and teenage Maldini.
West Germany had the crowd.
Italy had control.
For long stretches, that was the more important thing.
Mancini Scores the First Goal of Euro 88
The breakthrough finally arrived after halftime.
A German defensive mistake opened the door, Donadoni pounced and Roberto Mancini was released on the right.
Mancini finished.
1–0 Italy.
It was the first goal of the entire tournament — and Mancini’s first for the senior Italian national team, coming in his 14th appearance.
It should have been the moment Italy took complete command.
Instead, the lead lasted about three minutes.
Brehme Answers Immediately
West Germany’s response was almost instant.
An indirect free-kick was touched into the path of Andreas Brehme, whose shot took a deflection on its way beyond Walter Zenga.
1–1.
And just like that, Italy’s reward for an excellent performance had been cut in half.
It was also a reminder of something that would become increasingly familiar with this generation of German football.
They didn’t necessarily have to be the better team.
They just had to stay alive.
The Names Are Ridiculous Looking Back
One of the joys of revisiting Euro 88 is seeing these teams before we knew exactly what many of these players would become.
Maldini was still a teenager.
Klinsmann was 23.
Mancini was 23.
Matthäus was already West Germany’s captain.
Baresi was entering the period in which he would become one of the defining defenders of his generation.
Ancelotti was still running around in midfield rather than standing on the touchline raising an eyebrow.
Vialli and Mancini were playing together for Italy while simultaneously building their famous partnership at Sampdoria.
And Beckenbauer, arguably Germany’s greatest-ever player, was now attempting to deliver a European Championship as the national team’s coach.
Euro 88 feels modern enough to be recognisable.
But distant enough to contain an entirely different football world.
Player of the Day: Roberto Donadoni
Mancini scored the goal.
Brehme rescued Germany.
But Donadoni might have been the most impressive player on the pitch.
He was dangerous with the ball, intelligent without it and directly involved in creating Mancini’s opener.
UEFA’s account singles him out for praise, describing his work with the ball as one of the features of Italy’s performance.
Against the tournament hosts, in the opening match, Italy needed somebody willing to play rather than merely survive.
Donadoni did exactly that.
What We Learned About West Germany
The hosts have weapons.
They also have problems.
Matthäus gives them authority in midfield. Littbarski provides invention. Völler and Klinsmann offer an intriguing attacking partnership.
But defensively, Italy found weaknesses.
Matthias Herget in particular endured an uncomfortable evening as Germany’s sweeper, while Italy’s pressing repeatedly exposed uncertainty around him.
Beckenbauer has work to do.
The positive?
Germany were second best for portions of the match and still didn’t lose.
Tournament football tends to reward that particular skill.
What We Learned About Italy
Watch this team.
Seriously.
Italy arrived with a young side, but there was nothing timid about them.
Maldini already looked comfortable at this level. Baresi gave the defence authority. Giannini provided class in midfield. Donadoni carried the ball with purpose, while Mancini and Vialli gave Vicini two young attackers prepared to take risks.
They came into the host nation’s stadium and played.
That matters.
A 1–1 draw doesn’t look dramatic in the record books.
The performance was more interesting than the result.
Sublime Player Ratings
West Germany: Immel 6, Buchwald 6, Herget 5, Kohler 6, Brehme 8, Berthold 6, Littbarski 7, Matthäus 7, Thon 6, Klinsmann 6, Völler 6.
Italy: Zenga 6, Baresi 8, Bergomi 7, Ferri 7, Maldini 7, Ancelotti 7, De Napoli 7, Giannini 7, Donadoni 9, Mancini 8, Vialli 7.
Sublime Man of the Match: Roberto Donadoni.
Day 1 Verdict
West Germany 1–1 Italy
If this was supposed to be West Germany’s opening-night celebration, Italy didn’t read the script.
The hosts escaped with the draw.
Italy escaped with something potentially more valuable: proof that this young team belongs among the favourites.
And Euro 88 is underway.
Tomorrow brings Denmark vs Spain — and then the tournament really starts moving.
Day 1 rating: 8/10.
One match.
Two heavyweight nations.
And the first glimpse of a very, very interesting Italian team.
