Football Classic: Roberto Baggio's penalty miss in 1994 World Cup final

Roberto Baggio missed a decisive penalty in the 1994 World Cup final that led to Italy's 3-2 defeat to Brazil in the penalty shoot-out. After the miss, the Italian forward stood at the penalty mark for a long time, lowering his head. It was a miss that haunts Baggio's career.

Take a look at Baggio's goal tally in Serie A. You'll find that before the 1994 World Cup, Roberto Baggio could score 14+ goals from the 1988-89 season. However, after missing the penalty, in the next 3 consecutive seasons, he scored just 20 goals in total.

Roberto Baggio wrote in his autobiography: "It was the toughest moment of my career. Before I left for the finals my Buddhist spiritual master told me that I would be confronted with a lot of problems and that everything would be decided at the very last minute. At the time I didn't realise his prediction would be so accurate.

" As for the penalty, I don't want to brag but I've only ever missed a couple of penalties in my career. And they were because the goalkeeper saved them not because I shot wide. That's just so you understand that there is no easy explanation for what happened at Pasadena. When I went up to the spot I was pretty lucid, as much as one can be in that kind of situation. I knew Taffarel always dived so I decided to shoot for the middle, about halfway up, so he couldn't get it with his feet. It was an intelligent decision because Taffarel did go to his left, and he would never have got to the shot I planned.

Unfortunately, and I don't know how, the ball went up three metres and flew over the crossbar. As for taking the penalty in the first place, I was knackered, but I was the team's penalty taker. I've never run away from my responsibilities. Only those who have the courage to take a penalty miss them. I failed that time. Period. And it affected me for years. It the worst moment of my career. I still dream about it. If I could erase a moment from my career, it would be that one. "