page_title: Sandro Mazzola
section_title: International career
hierarchical_section_title: Sandro Mazzola / International career
caption_attribution_description: English&#x3a;&#32; Italian footballers Sandro Mazzola (left) and Gianni Rivera (right) before the 1974 FIFA World Cup qualifying game v Luxembourg at Luigi Ferraris Stadium in Genoa, 31 March 1973. Italy won the match 5-0Italiano&#x202f;&#x3a;&#32; Genova, stadio Luigi Ferraris, 31 marzo 1973. Sandro Mazzola (a sinistra) e Gianni Rivera (a destra) con la maglia dell'Italia, prima della sfida contro il Lussemburgo (5-0) valevole per le qualificazioni al campionato mondiale di calcio 1974.
context_page_description: Alessandro "Sandro" Mazzola is an Italian former professional footballer, who played as a forward or attacking midfielder for Internazionale and the Italy national team. He currently works as a football analyst and commentator on the Italian national television station RAI.
  He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Italian football players of all time, and as one of the best players of his generation, due to his speed, work-rate, creativity, technical skills and eye for goal; he placed second in the 1971 Ballon d'Or. Having spent his entire 17 season career with Inter, he holds the honour of being a one-club man. With the club, he won four Serie A titles, two European Cups and two Intercontinental Cups, also winning the Serie A top scorer award during the 1964–65 season, in which he also reached the Coppa Italia final, narrowly missing out on a treble with the club. With the Italian national side, Mazzola won the UEFA European Championship in 1968, being named to the Team of the Tournament, and reached the final of the 1970 FIFA World Cup; he also took part in the 1966 and 1974 FIFA World Cups with Italy.
context_section_description: Mazzola played 70 times for Italy between 1963 and 1974, scoring 22 goals. His debut for the national side was against Brazil on 12 May 1963, when he was aged only 20, and he marked the occasion by scoring a goal from a penalty. Mazzola later played for his country at the 1966 FIFA World Cup under Edmondo Fabbri, appearing in all three of Italy's group matches, and scoring in his nation's opening fixture, a 2–0 win over Chile, as Italy were eliminated in the first round; he later took part at the next two editions of the tournament with Italy. His biggest achievement with the national side came in 1968, however, when Italy won the 1968 European Championship on home soil under manager Ferruccio Valcareggi, and Mazzola was named as a member of the Team of the Tournament for his performance.
  Two years later, however, although Italy arrived at the World Cup in Mexico as defending European champions, there was much turmoil within the team, as the Italian national team's coach, Valcareggi, believed that Mazzola could not play alongside the other Italian creative star player Gianni Rivera, who played in a similar position for Mazzola's rival club Milan, as it would offset the balance within the team; Mazzola was therefore chosen to start in all three of Italy's first round matches, due to his superior athleticism and work-rate. As the Italians had difficulty scoring during the group stage, and Mazzola had struggled to regain match fitness after coming down with a stomach flu, Valcareggi devised a controversial solution for the second round of the tournament, which he called the "staffetta" (relay), in order to play both players.
  Mazzola, who was faster, stronger, fitter, more goal-prone, and who had the superior tactical intelligence and work-rate of the two, would start in the first half, while Rivera would come in at half time, once the opposing players began to tire. This would allow the more creative playmaker Rivera more time on the ball to dictate the tempo of the team's play. With this strategy, Italy defeated hosts Mexico in the quarter-finals, and subsequently West Germany in extra time in the semi-finals to reach the World Cup final for the first time in 32 years, in which Italy faced Brazil, led by Pelé. The match was billed as the battle between offensive and defensive football, but on game day, Valcareggi abandoned his staffetta policy at half time, with the score tied at 1–1, and decided to only use Mazzola until the very end of the match, due to the precarious physical state of several of his starting players following Italy's taxing semi-final victory. Rivera finally went into the game with only six minutes remaining, replacing Roberto Boninsegna however, with Brazil leading 3–1. Two of Italy's biggest technical stars were finally united together on the pitch, where many people believed they should have been all along, but it was too late; Brazil won the match 4–1 to capture the World Cup title, their third overall.
  Four years later, Valcareggi finally used the two players together at the 1974 World Cup, but the ageing Italian side underperformed and was eliminated in the first round of the tournament.
caption: Mazzola playing for Italy alongside Gianni Rivera; the two players would be involved in manager Ferruccio Valcareggi's infamous staffetta policy at the 1970 World Cup.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2014:02:08 17:30:39", "Image ExifOffset": "172", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "310", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8932", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "645", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "937"}