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SCMP Reporter

IT has been a tale of two Baggios in Italian soccer during the past year.

  Dino Baggio scored the goals that gave Parma victory in last month's UEFA Cup and put Italy on course for the World Cup final against Brazil last July.

  This was after Roberto Baggio, of Juventus, had provided the spark that fired the national side after a lacklustre opening to the campaign in the United States.

  Born in the same region - Veneto in northeast Italy - the Baggios are not related but are close friends. They were team-mates for two years with Juventus. Both have overcome serious knee injuries that jeopardised their careers.

   However, this season they played with rival clubs that fought a season-long battle for domestic and European honours.

   Roberto Baggio's Juventus clinched victory in the league with a win over Dino's Parma, who could have kept their slender hopes of the championship alive had they won. But the emphatic 4-0 win by Juventus ended their nine-year wait for their 23rd championship.

  Although Roberto did not score in the match, he was the engineer of the victory.

  Silver-haired striker Fabrizio Ravanelli scored twice, while Didier Deschamps, the former Olympique Marseille captain, and Gianluca Vialli, former Italian first-choice striker, scored the other goals.

  But for Roberto Baggio, who created three of the goals, it was his first title and came as some consolation for the loss to Brazil in the World Cup final.

  Although his contract with Juventus expires this month, the flamboyant striker has been offered a two-year deal worth US$1.3 million less than the $4.4 million that he would earn under his current contract.

  However, no one looks capable of matching the $22 million transfer fee Juventus have placed on him, and the club will be counting on his services for next season's European Champions' Cup.

  Parma, who had been involved in a season-long battle with Juventus in the league and the UEFA and Italian cups, were magnanimous in defeat.

  Coach Nevio Scala said: 'Juventus deserved this title. I've no regrets, the best side won and for that reason I told all my players to go and shake hands with the Juventus players.'   But, in the second leg of the UEFA Cup final, it was a different story, with Dino Baggio's headed goal securing a 1-1 draw in the highly-charged match that gave Parma an overall 2-1 victory on aggregate, after he had scored the only goal in the first leg.

  The goal gave Parma their first UEFA Cup and their second European title within three years, following their 1993 Cup Winners' Cup victory.

  But it was in the World Cup in the US that the Baggios really stamped their authority on the game.

   Dino, 23, was the revelation of the campaign and, in some sense, the saviour after his goal led to the 1-0 defeat of Norway in the preliminary round to keep Italy's hopes alive after a defeat by Ireland in their opening match.

  Down to 10 men, the win against Norway was perhaps Italy's best performance in the tournament and a draw against Mexico in the final group match was enough to put the Italians into the next stage of the competition.

   In the second round, Italy had been two minutes away from being knocked out by Nigeria when Roberto Baggio struck, sending the game into extra time and putting his team into the quarter-finals with a penalty winner.

   Spain were the next opponents and this time it was Dino who opened the scoring, before Roberto scored in spectacular fashion in the 88th minute to give Italy a 2-1 victory.

  Released by a through-ball from Giuseppe Signori, Roberto scored from an almost impossible angle from the right with Spanish goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta helpless, metres from his goal.

   'I was in a tough position,' Roberto said. 'He came out and closed the door.'    But Baggio forced it open, dancing around the 'keeper.

 In the semi-final, he shed blood, sweat and tears to send Italy into the final against Brazil. The Italian maestro's two first-half goals, the opener one of the greatest in the World Cup, brought Bulgaria's giant-killing run to an end and set the scene for a replay of the classic 1970 final won by Brazil.

  But a clash of heads with Trifon Ivanov left him with a broken tooth. And he was forced off with a pulled thigh muscle in the 71st minute.

 'I'm used to not giving in,' said Roberto, 27, who was told as a teenager he would never play football again after a horrendous knee injury.

   'I've been fighting injury since I was 18 years old. Remember, this is my work, my life, and it is made of sweat and tears. But today I cried because I was very, very happy.'   In the final, he was crying for a different reason: it was his missed penalty in the sudden-death shoot-out that gave Brazil the crown.

   But there was a positive side. Had it not been for his five goals in the run up to the final, Italy would surely have gone out earlier in the competition.

   Nevertheless, with the team seldom firing on all cylinders during the campaign in the US, the fact that they did contest the final was testimony to the strength of the Serie A league in Italy.

   Finishing third below Parma in the league this year were the 1994 European Champions' Cup winners AC Milan, one of the richest and highest-spending clubs in Europe.

  Milan were also in the final this year. But they could not repeat last year's performance, losing to Ajax of the Netherlands 1-0. However, coach Fabio Capello was pragmatic. 'You can't always live in paradise,' he said.

  Milan has been the most successful Italian team on the domestic and international scene over the last decade.

  'This is not the end of my team,' the coach said. 'We have the humility for restarting from the lower steps.'   As a losing champions cup finalist - and loser to Juventus in the league this season - Milan will start in the UEFA Cup next season.

  'That's the only cup missing in our record,' said Milan's managing director Adriano Galliani. 'We are also looking forward to the next Italian title to be back into the Champions' Cup quickly.' 



Baggio boys weave magic spell for national team