Ravanelli Five Goals: Juventus 5-1 CSKA Sofia (1994)
The Ravanelli five goals came at the Delle Alpi on Tuesday 27 September 1994, when Fabrizio Ravanelli scored every Juventus goal in a 5-1 win over CSKA Sofia in the UEFA Cup first round. Juventus needed them. They had lost the first leg 3-2 in Sofia a fortnight earlier and that result still stood, so they went out that night behind in the tie and won it on the pitch. The committee room only caught up eleven days later. It is one of the odder nights in our On This Day series.
A striker scored five in a European tie and it is barely remembered. What follows is why the first leg was rewritten weeks after it mattered, and why the man who scored CSKA Sofia’s consolation was the reason any of it happened.
Key Facts
- Played on Tuesday 27 September 1994 at the Delle Alpi in Turin, the UEFA Cup first round second leg. UEFA’s match record names the ground.
- Juventus won 5-1 and led 1-0 at half time, with Sandor Puhl of Hungary refereeing.
- UEFA’s record times Fabrizio Ravanelli’s five at 10, 76, 80, 84 and 86 minutes, with Petar Mihtarski scoring for CSKA Sofia on 90.
- The crowd is unsettled. La Stampa’s match panel the next morning gave 16,000, Transfermarkt gives 15,000, and UEFA’s database carries 38,000.
- CSKA Sofia had won the first leg 3-2 in Bulgaria on 13 September, and on the night of the second leg that result still stood.
- UEFA’s disciplinary commission met on 6 October and awarded the first leg 0-3, because CSKA had fielded Mihtarski without registering him by the 15 August deadline. The aggregate became 8-1, and Mihtarski had played in the second leg too, while the investigation was still running.
- It was Marcello Lippi’s first season in charge, which ended with Juventus winning Serie A and the Coppa Italia and losing the UEFA Cup final.
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The Tie Juventus Won Twice
A First Leg That Still Counted
CSKA Sofia beat Juventus 3-2 in Bulgaria on 13 September 1994. UEFA’s own record of that match lists the goals as they were scored: Sergio Porrini on 39 for Juventus, Petar Mihtarski on 44 for CSKA, Milen Radukanov on 70, Alessandro Del Piero on 76, and Mihtarski again on 82. A crowd of 16,147 watched it.
Juventus protested that Mihtarski had not been registered in time to play in Europe. The hearing was set for 6 October, nine days after the second leg, and until it sat, the 3-2 was the score.
This is the part most accounts of the night get wrong, and the contemporary press is unambiguous. La Stampa’s report the morning after opens by saying there was no need to wait for the farce of 6 October to know Juventus had qualified, because the verdict had come from the pitch, as it should have done. Juventus did not walk out protecting a paper lead. They walked out a goal behind.
Ravanelli Scores Every Goal
Ravanelli headed the opener on 10 minutes, a finish La Stampa described in exactly those terms, and for an hour that was all Juventus had. The half-time score was 1-0, and on the aggregate as it then stood that was just enough: 3-3, with Juventus holding two away goals from Sofia to CSKA’s none. One goal for the visitors in Turin and it would have been worth nothing.
Then the match broke open. Ravanelli scored on 76, 80, 84 and 86 minutes, four goals inside the closing quarter of an hour, and La Stampa counted the burst at eleven minutes of the second half. Five goals, one striker, and nobody else on the scoresheet in black and white.
| Minute | Scorer | Finish | Running score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Fabrizio Ravanelli | Header | 1-0 |
| 76 | Fabrizio Ravanelli | Left-footed shot | 2-0 |
| 80 | Fabrizio Ravanelli | Left-footed shot | 3-0 |
| 84 | Fabrizio Ravanelli | Left-footed shot | 4-0 |
| 86 | Fabrizio Ravanelli | Tap-in | 5-0 |
| 90 | Petar Mihtarski | Not recorded | 5-1 |
The Consolation Scored by the Reason for the Case
CSKA Sofia’s goal on 90 minutes was scored by Petar Mihtarski, the player whose registration was the whole dispute. CSKA played him in Turin knowing the case was live. La Stampa noted it, describing him as fielded sub judice and marked out by Ciro Ferrara, the danger of the first leg reduced to nothing in the second.
He still got the last word. A striker who should not have been on the pitch in Sofia, and arguably not in Turin either, scored the only goal Juventus conceded.
The Verdict, Eleven Days Later
On 8 October 1994, La Stampa reported the outcome under the headline CSKA: 0-3 a tavolino, the Italian phrase for a result decided at a table rather than on grass. The disciplinary commission turned the 3-2 CSKA had earned in Sofia into a 0-3 defeat, because Mihtarski, who had scored twice in that match, was not registered by the 15 August cut-off for European competition.
The 5-1 from Turin was left alone. The report explains why in one clause: the second leg stood because 5-1 was better for Juventus than the 0-3 they would otherwise have been given, even though Mihtarski had played in that match too, with the inquiry still open. So the aggregate went into the record as 8-1, and Juventus qualified twice over, once on the pitch and once at the table.
Not the First to Five
La Stampa put the achievement in its place the next morning, and did so more accurately than most retellings since. Five goals in the UEFA Cup, it noted, was not an outright record for the competition, though it was one for Juventus. Daniel Fonseca had done the same two years earlier for Napoli away at Valencia in the 1992-93 first round, a tie Napoli won 6-1 on aggregate.
Aritz Aduriz later joined them, scoring five for Athletic Club against Genk in November 2016, by then the Europa League. Ravanelli’s night belongs to a small set, and it never was solitary, whatever the anniversary posts say.
The Bigger Juventus Haul
One Juventus player has scored more in a single match. Inter’s own club history records that Omar Sivori scored six when Juventus won 9-1 on 10 June 1961, and the same account explains why the fixture was not a contest: Angelo Moratti and Helenio Herrera sent out Inter’s Primavera side in protest at a decision to replay an earlier match. Sivori’s six went in against teenagers.
Ravanelli’s five went in against a senior side that had beaten Juventus a fortnight before, in a tie his club was losing at kickoff. The harder night’s work by some distance, and still second place.
The Season It Belonged To
The night sits inside the best season Juventus had enjoyed in nine years. Marcello Lippi had taken over that summer, and The Gentleman Ultra’s account of the side describes the Scudetto as the end of nine years without one, sealed against Parma. Juventus then met the same opponents in two finals, taking the Coppa Italia and losing in Europe, which is the small print that keeps this run out of the legend.
Ravanelli left for Middlesbrough two years later and became one of the strangest imports the Premier League has seen, pulling his shirt over his head on Teesside. That night in Turin belongs to the version of him English audiences never saw.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Ravanelli’s Five Goals (1994)
When did Fabrizio Ravanelli score five goals for Juventus?
Fabrizio Ravanelli scored five on Tuesday 27 September 1994, in Juventus 5-1 CSKA Sofia in Turin. It was the second leg of a first round tie in the 1994-95 UEFA Cup. UEFA’s match record times his goals at 10, 76, 80, 84 and 86 minutes, and Petar Mihtarski scored CSKA Sofia’s consolation on 90.
Was the Juventus v CSKA Sofia tie already decided before the second leg?
No, and this is the detail most retellings get wrong. On 27 September 1994 the first leg still stood as a 3-2 win for CSKA Sofia. UEFA’s disciplinary hearing was not held until 6 October, and the ruling that awarded the leg 0-3 to Juventus was reported on 8 October, eleven days after the second leg was played. Juventus went into that second leg behind in the tie.
Why was the first leg between CSKA Sofia and Juventus awarded 0-3?
CSKA Sofia won that first leg 3-2 on the pitch in Sofia on 13 September 1994, but fielded Petar Mihtarski, who had not been registered by the 15 August deadline for European competition. La Stampa reported on 8 October 1994 that the disciplinary commission converted the result into a 0-3 defeat for CSKA. Mihtarski had scored twice in that match.
Why was the Juventus 5-1 win over CSKA Sofia not also awarded 0-3?
Because it was already a bigger win. Mihtarski played in the second leg too, while the investigation was still open, but La Stampa’s report of the ruling notes that the 5-1 was left standing precisely because it was better for Juventus than the 0-3 an award would have given them. Punishing CSKA a second time would have reduced Juventus’s winning margin.
What was the aggregate score in the Juventus v CSKA Sofia tie?
The tie is recorded as 0-3 and 5-1, an aggregate of 8-1 to Juventus, and RSSSF and UEFA both carry it that way. Three of those eight goals were never scored: they come from the awarded first leg, which Juventus had actually lost 3-2 on the pitch.
Who scored CSKA Sofia’s goal against Juventus on 27 September 1994?
Petar Mihtarski, on 90 minutes. He was also the player at the centre of the eligibility case that would rewrite the first leg, and CSKA Sofia played him in Turin while that case was still being investigated. La Stampa described him as fielded sub judice and largely contained by Ciro Ferrara.
How many people watched Juventus 5-1 CSKA Sofia in 1994?
The sources disagree sharply. La Stampa’s match panel the next morning gave 16,000, Transfermarkt gives 15,000, and UEFA’s own database carries 38,000. The two figures closest to the match itself are the low ones, so a crowd of roughly 16,000 is the safest reading, but the discrepancy is real and worth stating.
Was Ravanelli the first player to score five in a UEFA Cup match?
No. La Stampa pointed out the morning after the match that five in the UEFA Cup was not an outright competition record, although it was a Juventus one. Daniel Fonseca had scored five for Napoli away at Valencia in the 1992-93 first round, two years before Ravanelli’s night in Turin.
Has anyone matched Ravanelli’s five goals in the competition since 1994?
Yes. Aritz Aduriz scored five for Athletic Club against Genk in November 2016, by which time the UEFA Cup had become the Europa League. Ravanelli’s five therefore belongs to a small group of players rather than to him alone, and it did not stand alone even in 1994.
Has any Juventus player scored more than five in one match?
Yes. Omar Sivori scored six for Juventus against Inter on 10 June 1961, in a match Inter’s own club history records as a 9-1 win. That history also records that Inter fielded their Primavera side in protest at a decision to replay an earlier fixture, so Sivori’s six came against a youth team.
Where was Juventus 5-1 CSKA Sofia played?
In Turin, at the ground Juventus called home in 1994-95. UEFA’s match record names the Delle Alpi directly, alongside the goal times and the team lists, so despite the occasional claim that the match was played at the older Stadio Comunale, the venue is not genuinely in doubt.
What did Juventus win in the 1994-95 season that began with CSKA Sofia?
Juventus won Serie A, their first Scudetto in nine seasons, and added the Coppa Italia. Parma were the opponents in both that final and the European one, which Juventus lost. It was Marcello Lippi’s first season, having taken over in the summer of 1994, and the CSKA Sofia tie was the opening round of that European run.
Why is Ravanelli’s five-goal night against CSKA Sofia so rarely mentioned?
Partly because the tie is remembered for the ruling rather than the football, and partly because the ruling has been misremembered as having come first. A striker scoring five to overturn a European deficit is a considerable night; a striker running up the score in a dead rubber is not, and the second version is the one that stuck.
Ravanelli Five Goals for Juventus (1994)
One striker, five goals, a European tie turned round by a side that walked out behind, and a disciplinary verdict that arrived eleven days too late to matter. For more nights that deserved better than they got, keep exploring our On This Day series, and meet more of the game’s outsized characters in Football Mavericks.
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