50 Years On: A cup final missed on a coin toss

Not a coin tossed onto the pitch by a foolish fan, or perhaps the wrong choice of ends ahead of a penalty shootout - but a semi-final tie literally decided by one heads-or-tails call, after three matches against Polish side Gornik Zabrze had all ended in draws.

Half a century later we spoke to Alberto Ginulfi, Roma’s goalkeeper during that era - and one of the individuals who played in all three games.

“It was a shame we didn’t get the chance to play the final in Vienna against Manchester United [the eventual winners]," Ginulfi noted.

"We won the Coppa Italia the year before – in style too. We gave everything we could. That season we’d had loads of injuries and you didn’t have the squads you get now back then.

"We only had 15 or 16 players and it wasn’t easy playing two games a week. But that’s how it goes with coin tosses.”

“50 years – wow! That’s how it went. There were no penalties back then.”

- Alberto Ginulfi

The Giallorossi, coached by the legendary Helenio Herrera, knocked out PSV Eindhoven in the last 16 – winning a coin toss on that occasion after a 1-0 victory at the Olimpico and a defeat by the same score line in the Netherlands.

In the quarter-finals the Giallorossi overcame Turkish side Goztepe, winning 2-0 at home and the securing a goalless draw away.

“Gornik Zabrze were a great team – that was underlined at the World Cup four years later,” Ginulfi remembers of his semi-final opponents (Poland reached the semi-finals of the 1974 World Cup, knocking Italy out in the group stage).

“They had Wlodzimierz Lubanski, a phenomenal player, who scored three of Gornik’s four goals against us.”

The first leg in Rome finished 1-1, as Jan Banas netted for the Poles in the first half and Elvio Salvori levelled in the 53rd minute.

“We didn’t play well in either of those first two games," Ginulfi noted.

"After drawing 1-1 at home, we drew 1-1 at their place too. They must have had 120,000 people there – the stadium was huge and the screaming was incessant, together with trumpets and all the rest of it.”

Roma took the lead through a Fabio Capello penalty in the 11th minute at Slaski Stadion - but a 90th-minute equaliser by Lubanski – also from the spot – sent the tie to extra time.

“Lubanski got another goal in extra time [in the 95th minute] then Francesco Scaratti levelled the scores again in the 120th minute," Ginulfi said.

"The funny thing is we thought we’d won on away goals, but the rules at the time stated that away goals in extra time didn’t count double. It changed the year after – that sort of thing always happens to Roma.

"We started hugging each other at the final whistle then they told us the rule didn’t apply in extra time.”

“A coin toss… of all things.”

- Alberto Ginulfi

As a result, the tie went to a play-off at a neutral venue, in Strasbourg, on 22 April 1970.

“That was another really close contest: it was 1-1 after 90 minutes and still 1-1 after extra time. They were very good; it must be said. They attacked a lot but we defended well.

"We didn’t have many strikers in that period and the year before we’d sadly lost Giuliano Taccola [who passed away].”

Lubanski scored once again for Gornik in the 42nd minute before Capello converted a penalty equaliser in the 57th.

After three matches – two of them lasting 120 minutes – and three draws it was time for the coin toss.

“In that match Joaquin Peiro, our captain, picked heads on the toss to choose ends and it was heads," Ginulfi said.

"In extra time there was another toss to choose ends. Peiro picked heads and it was heads again. For the only toss that really mattered Peiro wanted to pick heads again. I wasn’t near him but that’s what Peiro told me later.

"But Helenio Herrera took him by the arm to tell him to pick tails and so that's what happened. And that was that. It was heads. It happens unfortunately.

“I’ve never got over missing out on that final. You can stomach defeats – you win games or lose them and then you move on. But losing like that on a coin toss… It still hurts.”

“Sempre forza Roma!”

- Alberto Ginulfi

50 years on from that day, Roma and Gornik Zabrze will relive the occasion by playing three matches on FIFA.

Giallorossi esports player Damie will take on Gornik gamer Mateusz ‘Indywidualistaa’ Kaminski and footballers Michal Rostkowski and Daniel Scislak.

One match-up between these two sides that won't end on a coin toss...

Click here to find out more.