WORLD CUP ROSSONERI: KARL‑HEINZ SCHNELLINGER

Five games gone, two still to go to become world champions. World Cup semi-finals have often been the scene of historic, iconic, unrepeatable moments. Goals that shape the careers of those who score them, moments that transcend sport and become cultural references for the countries involved. A match that can bring immense joy - because it can open the door to a dream - but also bitter disappointment, an occasion that has few equals in the history of sport.

Making your mark in a World Cup semi-final is the stuff of dreams, and some of those few who have done so also made their mark in Rossoneri history. Like the three former AC Milan players who took part in the most iconic World Cup semi-final ever. A match, on 17 June 1970, which in addition to the names of the teams involved - Italy and West Germany - is also known by the nickname that says everything: the Match of the Century.

Roberto Rosato and Gianni Rivera on one side, Karl-Heinz Schnellinger on the other. Opponents on that afternoon at the Azteca in Mexico City, teammates in the Rossoneri changing room across some glorious years for AC Milan, with triumphs in Italy (one Scudetto and three Coppa Italia wins) and in Europe, with the 1968/69 European Cup, the 1969 Intercontinental Cup and two Cup Winners' Cups (1967/68 and 1972/73). The two Azzurri had also been leading figures in the 1968 European Championship win - Italy's first continental triumph - and the rock-solid German defender could count lots of near-wins with his national team.

Mexico was in fact Schnellinger's fourth World Cup with West Germany, and if the trips to Sweden in 1958 (semi-finalists, losing to the hosts) and Chile in 1962 (losing against Yugoslavia in the quarter-finals) had seen him play a supporting role, the Düren native had been a major player in the 1966 World Cup, in which he played in all six matches, including the final against hosts England, another  loss because of Geoff Hurst's infamous 'ghost goal'.

That Mexican afternoon saw, from the first minute, Rosato and Schnellinger at the centre of their respective four-man defences with Rivera starting, initially, on the bench. And it was the two Rossoneri defenders who played such crucial roles in the 90 minutes. The Italian made a fantastic save on the line, described as a 'masterpiece' by Nando Martellini, and the German  scored the goal - in the 90th minute - that sent the match into the extra time and cemented his legendary status.

The goal scored at the end of the 90 minutes went down in history as Schnellinger's first - and only - goal for the national team, against Italy, that had long been his home after his spells at Roma and Mantova before joining the Rossoneri in 1965. Karl-Heinz's goal kicked off a simply unforgettable 30 minutes, with no less than five goals - a record, still unbeaten today, in World Cup history - and a non-stop rollercoaster of emotions until the winner scored by Rivera, who came on at the end of the first half, in the 111th minute, immediately after the short-lived equaliser scored by Gerd Müller.

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