From 1951 to the present day, the Cornaredo stadium has not only been the venue for countless Swiss football matches, but also a stage capable of hosting events of international significance.
Thus continues the journey of ‘11 volte Cornaredo’, the video mini-series in which the Club looks back at eleven iconic moments experienced at its home ground, bidding farewell to a stadium that has left its mark on entire generations of fans.
The third episode looks back to 16 May 1990, the day Arrigo Sacchi’s great Milan side arrived in Lugano. Just a few days before their European Cup final against Benfica (the culmination of an extraordinary season), the Rossoneri played a prestigious pre-season friendly in Lugano.
On the pitch was one of Europe’s strongest teams, which won 3-1 thanks to goals from Massaro, Van Basten and Rijkaard. For Lugano, then managed by Marc Duvillard, the Danish player Jensen scored, leaving his mark on a night that remains etched in the memory of those lucky enough to experience it up close.
Romeo Pelosi, a striker who grew up a stone’s throw from Cornaredo and was a key player in the Bianconeri shirt between the late 1980s and early 1990s, recounts that occasion. In his memory, Milan’s visit was not just a match, but a close encounter with champions who, until then, had seemed to belong only to the television: an incredibly powerful emotion, shared by the whole dressing room, in a setting where the crowd also helped to make that occasion unique.
And it is precisely from Pelosi’s words that the deeper significance of that afternoon emerges. On the one hand, there was the thrill of taking on a ‘star-studded’ team; on the other, the sense of belonging to a Lugano side which, in those years, could count on several players who had come through its own youth academy, such as René Morf, Paolo Penzavalli, Marco Manfreda, Davide Colombo and Pelosi himself. A group bound to the Club and its stadium by a genuine bond, forged long before their first-team debuts and nurtured from childhood amidst the stands, training pitches and dreams to pursue.
The former Bianconeri striker’s account also includes details that capture the full human dimension of that day: the silence in the dressing room before kick-off, a packed Cornaredo, the feeling of facing players of a different calibre, and even a curious incident on the pitch alongside Franco Baresi, which has remained etched in his memory over the years. These small fragments help us understand why that friendly match, even though no points were at stake, holds a special place in the memories of many.
It is also through matches like this that we can gauge what Cornaredo has represented: not merely the home of league fixtures, but a place where Lugano has crossed paths with stories, faces and teams destined to leave their mark on European football. And this episode dedicated to Sacchi’s Milan fits perfectly into this intertwining of great international football and the Bianconeri identity.
The third episode of ‘11 volte Cornaredo’ is available from today.