Match summary
In 1969, Rocco's braves took command in the home leg, inflicting a comprehensive 3-0 defeat on Argentina's Estudiantes de La Plata, with Sormani bagging a brace. In the return match, amidst the highly charged atmosphere of the Bombonera (Boca Juniors' stadium), the Rossoneri dug in their heels, the mercurial Gianni Rivera taking the heat out of the match by scoring on the half-hour mark to guarantee Milan's first intercontinental triumph after an initial failure in 1963.

Key player
The "ragazzo d'oro" (golden boy) of Italian football on account of his elegance, technical ability and extraordinary vision, Gianni Rivera is one of the greatest players Italian football has ever produced.

For nineteen years, the name of this number 10 was inextricably associated with that of AC Milan, for whom he scored 128 goals in his 501 first team appearances. Subsequently, only Franco Baresi has enjoyed similarly universal acclaim from the Milanese tifosi.

His international career proved equally triumphant, despite the rivalry with Sandro Mazzola, with whom he played at four FIFA World Cups between 1962 and 1974, scoring 14 goals in 60 appearances. After eventually hanging up his boots, he became Milan vice-chairman in 1986, before embarking on a career in politics with similar success.

Coach
Nereo Rocco will forever be remembered as the inventor of the catenaccio (the bolt) while at Padova in the late fifties. That ultra-defensive system was rapidly adopted by many teams, most notably Helenio Herrera's Inter.

"Only we (Padova) practise the true catenaccio. The others just play defensive football," declared Rocco eruditely. Spotted at 15 as a player by Piero Pasinati, himself a future world champion in 1938, Rocco enjoyed an unspectacular playing career before tasting glory as a coach with AC Milan, having entered the profession in 1947 with his beloved Triestina.

Recruited as a crisis measure in 1961 to rebuild a Milan side consistently dominated by great rivals Inter, Rocco soon imposed his effective if unspectacular system and began to accumulate honours. But in his all-consuming passion for the game, Rocco neglected his own health and passed away at Trieste on 20 February 1979 at the age of 67.


First leg on 8 September 1969 at the San Siro in Milan
AC Milan beat Estudiantes de La Plata 3-0
Attendance: 60,675 spectators
Referee: Roger Machin (FRA)
Goals: Sormani (8' and 71'), Combin (45')
Milan :Cudicini, Malatrasi, Anquiletti, Rosato, Schnellinger, Lodetti, Rivera, Fogli, Sormani, Néstor Combin, Prati.
Coach: Nereo Rocco
Estudiantes LP:Poletti, Aguirre, Medina, Madero, Malbernat, Bilardo, Togneri, Echecopar, Flores, Conigliaro, Veron.
Coach: Osvaldo Juan Zubeldia.
Second leg on 22 October 1969 at the Bombonera stadium in Buenos Aires
Estudiantes de la Plata beat AC Milan AC 2-1
Attendance: 45,000 spectators
Referee: Domingo Massaro Conley (CHI)
Goals: Estudiantes: Comigliaro (43'), Suarez (44')
Milan: Rivera (30')
Estudiantes LP:Poletti, Manera, Aguirre, Madero, Malbernat, Bilardo, Romero, Togneri, Conigliaro, Taverna, Veron.
Coach: Osvaldo Zubeldia.
Milan:Cudicini, Malatrasi, Anquiletti, Fogli, Rosato, Schnellinger, Lodetti, Rivera, Sormani, Nestor Combin, Prati.
Coach: Nereo Rocco.