Milan-Juventus at San Siro on 6 April 1997 ended 6-1, a night that turned a big Serie A meeting into a rout. Christian Vieri struck in the 19th minute and Juventus kept pulling away before halftime, with Milan unable to find a way back even after Arrigo Sacchi sent on Roby Baggio.
Juventus arrived as league leaders and had put together 10 consecutive positive results, but that did not slow them down once the game opened up. Marcello Lippi was without Montero, Torricelli, Deschamps, Conte, Del Piero and Padovano, yet his side still controlled the match through a midfield of Jugovic, Zidane and Tacchinardi. Milan, by contrast, were shorn of Costacurta, Albertini, Weah, Davids and Ambrosini, with Coco and Eranio only on the bench because they were not at their best. Marco Simone and Dugarry started, but the balance of the evening quickly moved against them.
The first blow came in the 19th minute, when Vieri scored with his right foot after a short save by Seba Rossi, and Jugovic made it 0-1 for Juventus. Before halftime, Zidane converted a penalty after Boksic was brought down by Rossi, then Boksic left with a muscle problem and Amoruso came on. Jugovic struck again to stretch the lead to 3-0, and the match was effectively over before the interval. Sacchi’s decision to bring on Baggio later could not change the course of a game that had already slipped beyond Milan’s reach.
The 1997 result remains a hard reference point for any Milan-Juventus meeting because it showed the scale Juventus could reach on a night when Milan were short-handed and outplayed. It also captured a difficult spell for Milan after the Oscar Tabarez period and after Sacchi’s return, while Juventus looked every bit the side leading Serie A.
