Match Summary
In 1973, European champions Ajax refused to travel to the Intercontinental Cup away leg against Independiente in Buenos Aires, officially for financial reasons. After lengthy negotiations, European runners-up Juventus took their place. The final was played on "neutral territory" at the Olympic stadium in Rome. Juventus, with seasoned internationals such as Zoff, Altafini, Bettega and Morini in their side, seemed to have the odds stacked in their favour, but they had reckoned without the magical Bertoni - Bochini pairing.

The two Argentinians launched an audacious one-two from their own half, exchanging the ball all the way through the bamboozled Italian defence as far as Dino Zoff, whereupon master technician Bochini executed an impudent lob over the keeper into the back of the net. Courtesy of this 73 rd minute strike, Independiente won their first Intercontinental final at the fourth attempt.

Key players
Ricardo Bochini and Daniel Bertoni, whose names will forever be linked together, formed the attacking soul of the Independiente side. A particularly complementary forward pairing, they could practically find each other blindfold on the field.

Their achievement against Juventus in Rome still ranks as one of the greatest goals in Intercontinental Cup history. "Bochini and I were still quite young and scoring such a goal helped our careers a lot. In fact, we weren't even really regulars in the side before that match, but the coach Pipo Ferreiro put his faith in us, even though we'd only played in a handful of games during Independiente's victorious Copa Libertadores campaign that season. But we were picked for the final and the whole world saw what a good understanding we had. That was when our careers really got going," Daniel Bertoni explained a few years later.

Coach
A previous cornerstone of the Independiente defence, Roberto Pipo Ferreiro found acclaim as a coach by fielding three out-and-out strikers, the famous "three Bs of the Red Devils" (Balbuena, Bochini, and Bertoni) who marked the history of the Porteno club.

"It was a solid, brilliant and united team which never gave up the fight and battled until the last second," emphasised Pipo Ferreiro, who clearly still feels a certain nostalgia for clubs from that era: "Teams were more stable then. There were a lot fewer transfers and you could do long-term work with the players."

A highly respected coach, Ferreiro believes that "tactical deployment on the field of play has scarcely changed since the 1960s". He still remembers with some amusement the match against Inter Milan: "They were the first team we'd met that played with two centre backs and a sweeper and we only found out when the game started. Fortunately, that would never happen today."

Independiente beat Juventus 1-0
Goals: Ricardo "Bocha" Bochini (79')
Location: A one-off match on 28 November 1973 at Rome's Olympic stadium
Attendance: 22,489 spectators
Independiente: Santoro, Lopez, Pavon, Comisso, Raimondo, Manuel Sa, Balbuena, Galvan, Magglioni, Bochini, Bertoni
Coach: Roberto "Pipo" Ferreiro
Juventus: Zoff, Spinosi, Marchetti, Gentile, Morini, Salvadore, Causio, Cuccureddu, Anastasi, Altafini, Bettega
Coach: Vycpalek