ASK fans of a certain vintage – namely those too young to remember Scotland at a World Cup – about their lasting memories of following the national team, chances are the Euro 2008 campaign will come up.
After all, the events of that qualifying process produced arguably the best goal, greatest results and most gut-wrenching collapse of the last 20 years: James McFadden’s stunner at the Parc des Princes, home and away victories over France and the inexplicable defeat away in Georgia.
That was the context in which Italy visited Hampden Park on November 17, 2007 for the Tartan Army’s last stand, with the Scots knowing a win would guarantee them at least a play-off spot and defeat would end any hopes of reaching the finals in Austria and Switzerland.
As the game entered stoppage time, the hosts’ fate was still hanging in the balance with the score at 1-1. But as manager Alex McLeish prepared to launch his final assault, the Azzurri were awarded a mystifying free-kick after Giorgio Chiellini barged over Alan Hutton and somehow won a set piece for the visitors in a dangerous area. Andrea Pirlo floated in a cross and up rose Christian Panucci to head in a goal that was a dagger in the hearts of the Scottish support.
Eleven years on, Panucci returns to Hampden tonight looking to provide yet more pain to the long-suffering locals, this time from the Albania dugout.
Although the Italian remains best known on these shores for his contribution to that infamous night, his goal came towards the end of a glittering playing career in which he won almost every trophy going.
Spells at some of European football’s biggest clubs yielded the defender two Serie A titles, a La Liga crown, two Champions League winners’ medals, an Intercontinental Cup, two Coppa Italias and more.
Arriving at Milan from Genoa in 1993, Panucci learned from the very best as he deputised for Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi and Alessandro Costacurta at San Siro and started in the Rossoneri’s 4-0 hammering of Barcelona in the Champions League final of 1994.
It was under Fabio Capello that he became a first-team regular the following season and the defender then followed his boss to Madrid in 1996, becoming the first Italian to pull on the famous white shirt.
He celebrated his second European triumph while in Spain, and after less memorable spells with Inter, Chelsea and Monaco he was reunited with Capello at Roma in 2001, where he helped them win back-to-back domestic cups.
It was this long-running relationship with Capello that led Panucci to his first coaching role, as he became the veteran’s assistant when he took the Russia job in 2012.
They enjoyed a successful 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign, topping their group ahead of Portugal, but disappointingly crashed out in the group stages in Brazil after failing to win a single game, resulting in the Italian duo’s departure.
Panucci then set out on his own, but it has been a bumpy road for the former Italy international so far.
During his first full season in charge of Serie B outfit Livorno in 2015/16, he was sacked in November, reinstated in January and then sacked for a second time in March. Unsurprisingly, the Tuscan club were relegated that year. A move to Ternana followed, but this time Panucci got the sack before a single league game had been played following an argument with the club’s owner.
Albania came calling in July 2017, but it has proved to be another tricky job for the Italian so far.
The task of replacing compatriot Gianni de Biasi, who led the country to their first major tournament at Euro 2016, was always going to be a big one, but the 45-year-old has struggled to arrest a dramatic drop in form.
Panucci has led the country to three wins, the latest coming against Israel in Friday night’s Nations League opener, with a draw and five defeats making up the rest of his scorecard.
Several critics have been sharpening their knives and, although the Italian insisted before the Nations League kicked off that he ‘no longer feels pressure’, there is no doubt it was being applied going into these games.
McLeish watched from the touchline as Panucci crushed his managerial dreams a decade ago. Tonight, he has a chance to return the favour.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here