Wild: Spain 12 – Malta 1

Spain prepared its 82nd World Cup with unprecedented enthusiasm, and fifteen cities and eighteen stadiums filled its football geography. Pelota was mixed with ham and paella, with bulls and a wonderful tradition. It was all fun… except their selection. He prepared the table, and the others tasted the delicacies. The Spanish team was not yet the La Roja of touch, preciousness and strength that Barcelona gave it through Pep Guardiola, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets. Furia was still in force, that rustic and strong style that had prevailed for decades based on center and attack. With the addition that the World Cup came amid the booms of Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao and that more than half of the teams were from the Basque Country, that made their football even more brutal. And his coach was the Uruguayan Pepe Santamaría. It was more muscle and sweat than brains. He spent the first phase as that guy who gets trapped between two subway doors and finally enters the train with the use of force and the help of other passengers on the go. But in the second, with Germany and England in the group, he could not.

Disappointment spread across the Iberian Peninsula and the following year, during the qualifying round for the 1984 European Cup, there was no hope, the general atmosphere was gloomy. Spain shared territory with the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Malta. They arrived in the last game with two points less than the Netherlands (there were still 2 points to win) and with 11 goals less difference. It was considered eliminated. Only a miracle created suspension points: if they beat Malta by 11 goals, they could go through. And although it would be a local in Seville, it seemed to enter the realm of the impossible. In the first game, Spain barely won 3:2. No, that was not possible even in a dream. To the disappointment of the World Cup, I would add missing the European Cup.

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Malta was an extremely amateur team, almost all members were workers. One of the few professionals was their goalkeeper John Bonello, the only one with international experience, because he played in the German second division. Upon his arrival in Sevilla, Bonello declared: “If they score eleven goals for me, I will not return to my country.”

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Spain has changed players and coaches in relation to the World Cup. The driver was now Miguel Muñoz, very successful in Di Stéfano’s Madrid, from the old guard. That last game took place on December 21, 1983 (40 years ago today) at Benito Villamarín, Betis, with less than 30,000 people in the stands. There was no confidence, although Spain lost just one game, in Rotterdam, against the Netherlands with Ronald Koeman and Ruud Gullit. It was a match of a thousand centers. Spain came out like a storm, and Malta, one of the twenty-thirty gurus that European football has, took cover as best it could behind them. If the task was difficult, not long after the start Juan Señor, midfielder of Zaragoza, complicated it: he missed a penalty. But Santillana, that sensational number 9 of Real Madrid, called “The best header in history”, justified the nickname and made it 1-0 with a spectacular header in the 16th minute. A bad drink will follow: in the 24th minute, Malta equalized!! A not very dangerous shot by Degiorgi deflected off Maceda and missed Paco Buy: 1 on 1. It seemed that all expectations were buried there. That made Spain score 11 goals in 66 minutes. Only in a science fiction movie.

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But Santillana, barely 1.75 tall, but a terror due to his incredible driving, scored two more goals and it was 3:1 at halftime. The continuation was the Spanish storm. Sixty seconds into stoppage time, Betis winger Poli Rincón scored to make it 4-1. And in the 57th minute Poli scored the fifth himself. In just over half an hour, they had to score seven more, but the stands were vibrating, and Spain peppered Malta. There was a run of three goals in three minutes: two by Sporting de Gijón defender Antonio Maceda and the fourth by Poli Rincón in a superb personal play after dribbling past two opponents. Time was running out, but there were already eight of them… “And pay attention, because the impossible is getting closer,” says the presenter of Spanish Radio and Television in the video.

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The guys from Malta seem emotionally devastated. Goalkeeper Bonello spreads his arms after each conceded goal as if to justify himself: “What do you want me to do? They come in droves…” The defenders wave their arms and jump to the others: “Come on, come on…” But no one goes. They start from the middle and again Spain forces them into a corner. I can’t get out of my area. In the 76th minute, a left-footed shot by Santillana and the ninth goal, his fourth personal goal. In the 78th minute, two key actions, the referee excludes DiGiorgi, Malta remains with one less, and Poli Rincón scores the tenth goal. Ten to one and the home team is still out…! There are 12 minutes left to achieve this feat. Manu Sarabia, the centre-forward of Athletic Bilbao, wore number 11 and the stadium was already in collective delirium. Malta was definitely mentally broken, they could neither reject nor remove the ball from their area. And in the 84th minute, Juan Señor, the same one who missed the penalty at the beginning of the game, scored an unforgettable goal that took Spain to the Euro 84 championship in France.

To the narrator of RTVE His voice lost in the cry for a goal as a result of emotion, coach Miguel Muñoz rushes onto the field and is lifted. But there are 6 minutes left, we have to play, the game continues. Muñoz is reported on the edge of the white as the game goes on and says, almost on the verge of a heart attack, “It’s the greatest emotion of my life.” The man who won nine leagues and two European Cups with Real Madrid…! The stands seem to explode. Now Spain and the Netherlands are tied in points (13) and goal difference (+ 16), but La Roja wins because of the best goal in favor (24 to 22). And win a ticket to France.

Bonello said he would not return to his country if they gave him eleven years. But they marked him with twelve and he came back. And in 2006 he returned to Spain, hired for a beer advertisement in which he was described as “The Perfect Friend” and even joked about it, which did not go down very well in Malta. There were complaints that the visiting players were drugged and therefore appeared dark. Victor Scerri, the coach of the defeated team, said this for the program Maldini fever from Movistar+: “A short man dressed in white entered and offered us a tray of lemons, cut into pieces. That was the only thing they offered us. The players sucked them and then felt bad. I asked the doctor, ‘Could they have been drugged?’ Because the players went crazy. I hope Spain wouldn’t do that.”

Always, those who are defeated appeal to sow doubts. Spain was close to the heart of its players who watered the turf with sweat and blood. José Antonio Camacho, the captain of Madrid and that heroic Spain, completely denied the doubts: “If there had been a mistake, we would have scored seven goals in the first half.” And he left a phrase that illustrates that 12-1: “Spain won important titles, but 12-1 is the game that everyone remembers the most.” (OR)