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Lately, the portal “MSN Sports” published in its section “The Game of My Life,” a narration of Oscar Bernardi about the game that has marked his career in soccer: the game for thequarter-finals of 1982′ World Cup, when Brazil played against Italy and was disqualified. Below is his narration:

That game against Italy was sad, but there is no denying that was the most remarkable of my career. I can not forget it, and even if I wanted, people would not let. All the time someone asks me to speak of that game, there is no way. The hype of the Brazilian fans in that World Cup was too big and to be honest, it just affecting our team, yes. It was hard toavoid. And another thing: we saw the game against Argentina in Italy and the Italians won with difficulty, they did not play well.

After that, we took a beating in Argentina and we were thinking that the game against Italywould be easier. We expected that Italy played in the counter-attacks, as always, but it was not what happened. They came up and caught us by surprise.

Before the game, Falcão told us that he talked with Bruno Conti, who played with him inRome, and Conti had said that they would play loose, with no responsibility, because they thought they did not have much chance to win against Brazil. Conti came to tell that some Italian players had even packed his bags to return to Italy!

All of this made ​​a difference in the match because we had an obligation to go to the semifinals and they were relaxed. We always had confidence in our team, even when theywere twice ahead on the scoreboard, but after the third goal of Italy sunk in and we realized that we could stay out of the tournament. The crowd stopped singing and there despair crashed.

What most impressed me in that game was my head butt defended by Zoff, at the very end. When Eder made ​​the crossing and I saw the ball coming towards me, I was sure that I would make the goal. I was unmarked and headed by the book: hard and to the floor. But Zoff defended in the reflex. He did not even see the ball, he just jumped on it and was luckyto get hold of it.

It was a perfect butt, but the bastard defended! I would attach myself if that ball would go inside the goal. Perhaps if I had head up I would have made the goal, but you can not know.We still tried to make the judge believe that the ball was gone inside the goal, but it was useless.

After the game, the mood was funeral among us. The return was a horror and it took medays to get some sleep right. I was afraid of being booed on arrival in Brazil, but fortunately it did not, the fans received us in a wonderful way. Before the matchwe came to discuss the possibility of we play in a more conservative way, with the side players attacking less, butthat team had won everybody in the attack, we could not change. And Telê did not like to play with the regulation.

But today, many years later, I believe it was a mistake. Our team should have been more cautious, yes.

See the full section on MSN Sports.