Today in Serie A – March 25, 1990: Maradona’s Brace Destroyed Juventus | OneFootball

Towards the end of the 1980s and, particularly, in the 1989/90 season, Napoli vs. Juventus was pretty much a mismatch in Serie A.

On one hand, the Partenopei were enjoying the best years in their history, dazzled by Diego Maradona’s magic. On the other hand, the Bianconeri were going through one of their (very infrequent) dark ages as the club struggled to reshape their identity following Michel Platini’s departure a few years earlier.

Although Juve enjoyed better fortunes in Europe, domestically they had not been a real Scudetto contender since 1986. So, when they traveled to Naples on March 25, 1990 to face the Partenopei, the writing was on the wall.

What’s worse for the Old Lady, it turned out that Maradona was in one of his days as he got the job done within the first half hour of play. He drew first blood with a deadly left foot touch that left poor Stefano Tacconi speechless. Then, he doubled Napoli’s lead with the specialty of the house – a free kick not as incredible as the one that has gone down in history as the best ever taken in Serie A, but still a pretty good one.

In the second half, defender Gigi De Agostini halved Juve’s gap from the penalty spot, but Giovanni Francini made it three for Napoli just three minutes later.

Thanks to this 3-1 win, Napoli maintained the second place in the league, one point behind Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan, with four matchdays to go. They would pass the Rossoneri in the last lap, collecting their second Serie A win in history, thanks to a controversial forfeit win over Atalanta and Milan’s suicide in Verona.

Juventus, on the other hand, consoled themselves with the UEFA Cup, which they won a few weeks later defeating Fiorentina in an all-Italian Final.