One of sport’s most intrinsic qualities is its ability to crystalise a moment in time forever.

The feeling of being witness to history in the making, the sense that what is unfolding in front of our eyes on television or in the stadium will be spoken about for decades.

That is why, asking any Italian of a certain age what they remember of July 5, 1982 will invariably result in a three-word answer.

Italy against Brazil… followed by a detailed explanation of where they watched the game and who they were with. It is woven within the country’s cultural fabric, perhaps more than the triumphant final against West Germany itself.

Throughout history, Italy against Brazil has always been viewed through the prism of pragmatism against Joga Bonito. Catenaccio against the beautiful game; Darth Vader against Hans Solo; anti-football against football.

Or at least, it was.

The meeting at the 1982 World Cup in Spain killed that notion, to such an extent it forever changed the very fabric of Brazilian football history.

Or rather, Paolo Rossi killed it.

Both teams were in perhaps the hardest group the World Cup has ever seen: a table that also included Diego Maradona’s Argentina.

Still a 24-team tournament that included a second group stage, only the winners of each section in the second phase went through to the semi-final.

Italy and Brazil had both seen off Argentina to set up a grand finale in Barcelona that was very simple: the winner went through, the loser didn’t.

July 5 bore witness to one of the greatest games in the tournament’s history.

The match is so enthralling, so historical, it has its own Wikipedia entry, unusual for a game that isn’t a final.

Italy struck inside the opening five minutes through Rossi who had, in truth, a stinker of a tournament to that point. Coming back after his Totonero scandal ban, Rossi had played like a man who had not kicked a ball in two years in the first group stage.

He was a player brutally short on confidence, but coach Enzo Bearzot kept faith in the striker.

“Bearzot showed faith in me during a particularly difficult period in my life, something for which I’ll always be grateful. He helped me find my scoring touch again after two years out of the game, to enjoy my football again and find my focus and self-belief,” Rossi told FourFourTwo five years ago.

“If I had to name one person who had the greatest influence on my career, it would be Bearzot. He’s a special person for me.”

Even for a player who had scored only a single competitive goal in two years and had been described as a ‘ghost’ by the Italian media, Rossi was never going to squander the oceans of space Brazil afforded him for the opener.

He raced ahead of left-back Junior to meet Antonio Cabrini’s teasing cross to make it 1-0. It was his first Italy goal for three years.

While the Azzurri had Rossi in attack, Brazil were unfortunate to have Serginho. A tall, lumbering centre-forward who was not good enough to play for the Selecao, Serginho wasted a glorious chance to equalise minutes later, sending his shot wide when it looked harder to miss.

The great – and future Fiorentina midfielder – Socrates showed Serginho how it was done. Running on to Zico’s glorious little through ball, the majestic Socrates surged into the Italy penalty area, ghosting past Gaetano Scirea and elegantly placing the ball beyond Dino Zoff into the corner from an angle.

There were only 12 minutes on the clock but already the score was 1-1.

Rossi got his second when he intercepted Toninho Cerezo’s under-hit sideways pass, marched towards goal and slammed the ball into the corner of the net. If Brazil as a nation became scarred in the aftermath of the game, so did Cerezo.

A physical and cerebral player who would go on to forge a very good career in Serie A with Roma and Sampdoria, the wayward pass defined him in his homeland, unfairly staining his legacy among Brazilians.

There were chances for both sides at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second, with Rossi especially guilty of not cementing his hat-trick sooner.

Then Falcao, another silky Brazilian who would sparkle in mid-80s Serie A, lashed in the equaliser from the edge of the box with just 20 minutes remaining.

Surely Brazil would go to win it now? They could play the better football and, on paper, had the better players. Even more, they didn’t need a win, as their superior goal difference would have seen them through.

But football, as we know, isn’t played on paper. Five minutes later, Rossi got his hat-trick, and destroyed a country.

Brazil failed to properly deal with an Italy corner, and Marco Tardelli’s volley back into the box was turned in by the Juventus striker, totally unmarked in the middle of the box.

Giancarlo Antognoni had a fourth Italy goal disallowed for reasons that remain unclear, and Brazil centre-back Oscar forced a save from Zoff with two minutes remaining.

Yet Italy hung on to win and book a last-four meeting with Poland.

The aftermath of the game rippled across the psyche of Brazilian game for decades, Darth Vader had won. Brazil’s entire Joga Bonito ethos died that steamy July day in Barcelona at the since demolished Estadio Sarria. Their naivety had cost them, leaving swathes of space at the back just waiting to be punished.

Tele Santana, Brazil’s coach, was criticised for not adapting more cautious, or some would state more Italian, tactics in the game, since they only needed a draw.

Post-1982 Brazil adapted a more European approach, more emphasis was made on power and speed at the expense of technical wizardry and passing triangles.

Like many of his compatriots, Gianfranco Zola watched Rossi’s exploits on TV. Italy’s triumph against Brazil was the perfect present for young Gianfranco on the day of his 16th birthday.

Twelve years later, it was Zola’s turn to represent the Azzurri on the grandest stage of all at the 1994 World Cup. This, however, would not be a birthday to remember.

With Italy trailing Nigeria 1-0 in the round of 16 of and staring down the barrel of elimination, Arrigo Sacchi turned to Zola for inspiration.

The Sardinian replaced Giuseppe Signori with 65 minutes gone, making his World Cup debut after watching the three group matches from the bench.

With 23 goals, the Lazio forward had been the only player to better Zola’s tally of 18 in Serie A that season and the Parma star was desperate to make an impact.

Only 10 minutes had elapsed since his introduction by the time he went down in the box after tangling with Nigeria right-back Augustine Eguavoen.

As Mexican referee Arturo Brizio Carter waved play on, Zola sprung back to his feet and swiftly won possession off Eguavoen, who theatrically hit the turf.

This time, however, Brizio Carter did not wave play on, but showed an incredulous Zola a straight red card.

“When the whistle went, I thought, ‘He [the referee] has blown for a free-kick that never was’,” Zola told reporters the following day.

“When he went to take his card out, I was worried: ‘Is he seriously going to book me? That’s absurd’. Then I saw the red card and I couldn’t believe it. I thought, ‘Sent off? Why? What for?’

“I wanted my team-mates to stop him and then I cried.”

A goal down and a man down, Italy’s destiny seemed sealed. 

Roberto Baggio, however, had other ideas. With two minutes left, the Divine Ponytail met Roberto Mussi’s cross, arrowing a perfectly controlled finish into the bottom corner past Peter Rufai.

Baggio had waited almost four games to open his World Cup account, but now he completed his brace in 14 minutes, scoring from the spot just before half-time in extra-time after Antonio Benarrivo had won a rather dubious penalty.

Just like Zola had watched Italy beat Brazil 12 years earlier, Alberto Gilardino would have been glued to the TV as Baggio dragged them past Nigeria.

And just like Zola, Gilardino, who was born on the day of the Azzurri’s triumph over the Selecao, would represent his country at the World Cup 12 years later.

Fresh from scoring 17 goals in 34 Serie A appearances in his first season with AC Milan, Gilardino started Italy’s first four matches at the 2006 World Cup, scoring the opener in the 1-1 draw against the USA in the second group game.

Benched for the trouncing of Ukraine in the quarter-final, he came on with 16 minutes of normal time left of the semi-final against Germany in Dortmund just hours before his 24th birthday.

With 121 minutes on the clock of one of the most relentless, brilliant and absorbing World Cup encounters in history and Italy one goal to the good, Gilardino made the most of being one of the freshest players on the pitch.

Having received a pass from Francesco Totti, he galloped forward, holding up the play just enough to allow Alessandro Del Piero to run in the space he had opened to his left.

His team-mate now past him, Gilardino played a perfectly-weighted pass into the Juventus talisman’s path, and he curled a superb finish past Jens Lehmann to book Italy’s place in the final.

Gilardino scored 19 goals in 54 caps for Italy, one short of Rossi’s tally. 

Two round of 16 clashes at next year’s World Cup are scheduled for July 5.

Should Italy make it that far, don’t bet against the Azzurri writing another chapter of this particular story.