July 9th, 1994 was a rough day for the Spanish Football fans. The “Red Fury” played their quarter-final match against the 3 times World Cup Champions, Italy, after a convincing 3-0 victory over Switzerland. A strong squad that packed their midfield with defensive minded players and one or no striker at all, a very different style than the usual Iberic team.
The Azurri scored first, with a brilliant long range strike from midfielder Dino Baggio (no relation to striker Roberto Baggio) that went pass Zubizarreta, one of the best goals of the 1994 World Cup no doubt.
Then, it happened. Minute 48, after a cross from Goikoetxea looking for Luis Enrique inside the box. The Asturian midfielder went for the ball and hell broke loose. The elbow of Mauro Tassotti went straight to his face, shattering his nose and making a bloody mess. Definitely a penalty should have been awarded, along with a red card for Tassotti, but neither the referee or the linesmen noticed the aggression.
Later on the Spanish equalized the score with a goal from Caminero, but the damage was already done. Mentally, the Spaniards were thrown off and lost focus. Even though they had several opportunities to close the game, they weren’t able to turn them into goals. With the clock ticking and an extra time looming, in the 88th minute, Italy threw a great counter attack, finished by the brilliant striker Roberto Baggio after dribbling Zubizarreta.
Until 2010, this was one of the best shots of the Spanish Team to win the cup, and one of the most painful memories for the Iberian supporters and Luis Enrique himself.
Inspired by this iconic moment, we released our “Bloody Jersey”, a reimagined design that draws influence from the 1994 Spain away jersey, splattered with blood, that is still engraved in the minds of millions of spanish supporters around the globe.