Politics aside, if we look at what happened on the ice, the general idea I remember at the time is that A&P's program was not very strong, especially comparing with the masterpiece that Carmina Burana the year before was. The music (Beethoven's Last Night) didn't work so well for them and the choreography had nothing new or special, it was somewhat disjointed, not to mention much of it was brought from older programs. They also struggled with it during the whole season and they even fell at the Europeans. In contrast, F-P&M presented a very strong program for them and in general, I just thought that they showed up that season with much higher levels of confidence that I hadn't seen before and it was noticeable in the performances. I haven't seen the programs in awhile but this is the impression I retained.
Of course programs aren't everything and the difference in skills from one team to another was huge, which is why I think there is quite some controversy over the results. Barbara Fusar-Poli was an excellent ice dancer, but the same can't be said of Maurizio Margaglio. Not that a much weaker partner has ever stopped teams from reaching the medals over the years...
BTW, even though there have been some teams over the years in which the woman lifts the man, this has become sort of a trademark for A&P, they always do it in their programs and always different lifts.
I felt that Anassina and Pieserat used too many tricks, like the woman carrying the man, which detracted from the aesthetics of the program.
