When clouds cover the sky, Juventus fans shudder. And Roberto Mancini starts sneering. The incredible Champions League match with Galatasaray, which was abandoned in the 31st minute and resumed the following day, had a painful outcome for Conte's side.

After being eliminated from the 2013-2014 Champions League, any juventino who is not a teenager anymore suddenly remembered that cursed May 14th 2000. Perugia-Juventus was the deciding match for the 1999-2000 Scudetto: with ninety minutes left to the end of Serie A, Juventus led the table with 71 points while Lazio was chasing an unlikely last-minute win with 69 points. Roberto Mancini, the current coach of Galatasaray, was the leader and the most talented player of that Lazio.

That day, a cloudburst hit Umbria's city and the pitch soon started resembling a morass. During the half time break the game was suspended by the international referee Pierluigi Collina for an hour when the result was still 0-0, with Juventus players trying to convince him not to continue. Exactly as happened in Istanbul. In the meanwhile, Lazio won its last game against Reggina (3-0) and was virtually Campione d'Italia. Lazio fans remained in Roma's Olimpico stadium, waiting for good news from Perugia. Juventus, which had the most technically skilled players, were clearly disadvantaged in such a situation compared to Perugia, a combative team without any football artist.

After many attempts to make the ball bounce on the pitch (if the ball does not bounce, the game cannot continue, according to the rules), Pierluigi Collina decided that Perugia-Juventus could be resumed. The storm was over and, in his opinion, the pitch had absorbed much of the rain fallen. But fate was there around the corner, waiting for the Bianconeri: 5 minutes later, a wrong pass by Antonio Conte (!) delivered the ball to Alessandro Calori, a bouncer-like defender, who threw it at Edwin Van Der Sar's right side.

The Olimpico stadium burst in an immense elation and Roberto Mancini fulfilled his dream: winning another Scudetto before retirement. The improvised striker Alessandro Calori, who is now the coach of Novara in Serie B, is still remembered for that goal.

On December 11 2013, Juventus tried to convince the Portuguese referee Proenca to postpone the game due to the conditions of the pitch after the heavy snowfall and hailstorm of the previous night (which partially went on the following day), but the referee was uncompromising: the game continued. “It was not a football game, it was a battle. It was more like an amateur game. We had a meeting with the UEFA delegate but no one wanted to listen to us” Antonio Conte said. In addition, that was not the first time a Galatasaray-Juventus was postponed. As we already wrote on SerieAddicted, this game has a very vivid history.

But, while in 2000 the pitch was a paddy-field for both teams, this time Juventus seems to have more reasons for complaining. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, during the half time break of Galatasaray-Juve, the Turkish general manager Lutfi Aribogan ordered to shovel the side of the pitch where Galatasaray was going to attack and to ruin the other side, creating holes and furrows. Actually, the images don’t lie, and show the side of the field of the Bianconeri much more mangy than the counterpart's... Just a coincidence? Or was it an evil plan?