After being defeated by Sevilla on penalties on the first day of the "Trofeo Ciudad de Sevilla" tournament, the Maksimir footballers suffered another narrow defeat a day later in the battle for third place. Roma beat them 3-2. Moreover, it was a clash between the reigning national cup winners: Dinamo had won the Yugoslav Cup in 1980, while Roma had won the Italian Cup.

The Roman club had just entered a season in which they would eventually finish as runners-up in Serie A, two points behind Juventus. At the tournament's start, hosts Betis had beaten Roma 3-0, so the "giallorossi" and the blues faced each other the following day in the battle for third place at Sevilla's Sanchez Pizjuan stadium.

Roma was led from the bench by former celebrated AC Milan player, Swede Nils Liedholm. The squad included popular goalkeeper Franco Tancredi, then the Italian national team's number 10 from the World Championship two years earlier in Argentina, Romeo Benetti, there was also 1982 world champion with the "azzurri" Bruno Conti, and Roberto Pruzzo who would become the top scorer of the Italian league in the upcoming 1980/81 season, defending his title a year later. Also present was the talented 21-year-old of the time, future AC Milan star and popular coach Carlo Ancelotti.

It was Ancelotti who set up Pruzzo for the opening goal against Dinamo as early as the 3rd minute. In the middle of the first half, three goals appeared within a five-minute span. First, Pruzzo scored in the 20th minute for 2-0 after breaking through Dinamo's defense, in the 22nd minute Francesco Rocca scored Roma's third goal with a precise spectacular strike, before Zlatko Cico Kranjčar reduced the deficit from the penalty spot in the 25th minute after being brought down in the penalty area by Maurizio Turone. Five minutes before the end, in an action where the Italian defense managed to clear the ball several times, Abid Kovačević still managed to hammer it into the net.