Lino Banfi stated that, although he already had told the idea of the 5-5-5 formation (aka B-Zone) to director Sergio Martino, he had no idea of how to explain the presence of 15 players. In fact, his explanation was improvised during filming.
In the scenes of the first march Roma-Longobarda filmed at the Stadio dei Marmi there are four real AS Roma players of the time of filming playing a cameo: Roberto Pruzzo, Francesco Graziani, Odoacre Chierico and Carlo Ancelotti. The other players wearing an AS Roma jersey are extras.
Actor Gigi Sammarchi stated in an interview that most of his gags were improvised. He stated that it was quite easy because mangled Portuguese word easily resemble some dialectal Italian words.
The final sketch of coach Oronzo Canà (Lino Banfi) celebrating with the hooligans was partially ad-libbed: Canà seems to ask the hooligans if they are "holding him for a dick", but when they answers that on the contrary they are "holding him for a hero", he explains that they are "holding him for the dick and it hurts". Lino Banfi was actually hurt during the scene, so he decided to improvise this sketch, although other sources state that it originates from a joke told by director Sergio Martino to Lino Banfi during pre-production. A very similar sketch is present in the movie Giggi il bullo (1982).
The scenes where Aristoteles (Urs Althaus) is hospitalized in Rio de Janeiro were actually filmed at the Aurelia Hospital in Rome, later used as location for the TV series Incantesimo (1998-2008). The exteriors of the hospital were filmed in Rio de Janeiro.
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