Four minutes is enough to get rid of Lecce
A Crespo penalty and an Inzaghi goal in four minutes were enough to win away against a good Lecce.
Also on this day: December 2, 1984, Sampdoria Lazio 2-2. Two-nil down, the Biancocelesti snatch a miraculous draw with two goals in five minutes. Player of the day: Ernesto Calisti
The season so far
In August Lazio had a Champions League playoff with FC Copenhagen. The first leg could have been a warning as Lazio, despite being dominant for most of the match, had thrown away a victory with a penalty and an Angelo Peruzzi mistake. However, the return leg had put everything in place and Lazio went through, even though they were not playing particularly well.
It was really no surprise. During the summer Lazio had sold Juan Sebastian Veron, Marcelo Salas and Pavel Nedved seemingly to cash in some desperately needed money. They had however also bought Gaizka Mendieta, considered one of the best players in the world at the time, and Jaap Stam, considered one of the best defenders. Sergio Cragnotti later said that the plan was to substitute Alessandro Nesta with Stam but he could not get the right asking price and was forced to wait until the next season.
The start was slow. Too slow. The team was demotivated and badly prepared. Dino Zoff had decided to go for a 3-5-2 formation, but the team was just not right. A draw at home against Piacenza, a draw against Perugia, another against Torino. Forced to play against Galatasary away in the first Champions League match on the infamous September 11, they lost 1-0.
The situation precipitated in the second Champions League match against Nantes. The 3-1 defeat at home was the final nail in the coffin for Zoff. He was replaced by Alberto Zaccheroni, former Udinese and Milan manager.
Zaccheroni’s start in the Campionato was a disaster, not so much for the result (one can lose against AC Milan) rather for the increasing amount of injuries: Giuseppe Favalli, Hernan Crespo, Nesta and Dino Baggio. After five games Lazio were still to win a match and had scored only one goal in Serie A and one in Champions League.
However, things improved, Lazio started to play better and in Serie A by December they were on a roll: three consecutive wins and the last match was a convincing victory against Juventus.
Lazio however had been unable to solve its problems in Champions League and were already out of the tournament.
The match: Sunday, December 2, 2001, Lecce, Stadio Via del Mare
This was not going to be an easy game, but there was optimism in the Lazio camp and things started off really well. Simone Inzaghi and Crespo missed several chances early on and Lecce were in real difficulty. After a couple of saves by the Lecce keeper, in the 30th minute Sebastian Cimirotic suddenly hit the crossbar from 30 metres out after seeing Luca Marchegiani a bit too far off his line. Five minutes later Inzaghi, again, had another incredible chance. All alone, with an open goal, he managed to put it wide.
Things changed considerably in the second half. In the 58th minute Stefano Fiore was fouled just inside the penalty box. Crespo made it 1-0. Four minutes later Inzaghi literally stomached the ball in the back of the net from Cesar cross and it was 2-0.
Lecce tried a comeback and pulled one back in the 68th minute with Bruno Cirillo, a fluky volley catching Marchegiani unawares. Nothing much happened after this. Lazio were in complete control and apart from a few handball appeals from Lecce not much else happened. Lazio’s consecutive wins were now up to four.
Who played for Lecce
Chimenti, Cirillo, Popescu, Savino, Giorgetti (46' Balleri), Superbi (66' Konan), Giacomazzi, Tonetto, Colonnello, Cimirotic (46' Vugrinec), Chevanton.
Subsitutes: Frezzolini, Juarez, Malusci, Silvestri.
Manager: Cavasin.
Who played for Lazio
Marchegiani, Negro, Nesta, Fernando Couto, Cesar, Poborsky, Liverani, D. Baggio, Fiore (87’ Colonnese), Crespo, S. Inzaghi (78’ Kovacevic)
Subsitutues: Concetti, Mihajlovic, C. Lopez, Mendieta, Gottardi
Manager: Zaccheroni
Referee: Rosetti
Goals: 59’ Crespo (pen), 63’ S. Inzaghi, 68’ Cirillo
What happened next
Not a good year for Lazio. Zaccheroni was unable to set the sail straight after the disastrous beginning.
The consecutive victories in the end were five but to no avail. Struggling to find a minimum organisation, the team just did not have that continuity that was necessary to reach the top positions. Mendieta was completely at loss and did not play a decent match the whole season.
Rock bottom was reached on March 10 when Lazio lost the derby 5-1. The line-up chosen by Zaccheroni was incomprehensible and his future at Lazio was clearly doomed. The continuous rumours that Roberto Mancini would be coming back to manage Lazio did not help the situation. The players were distracted. Karel Poborsky was just plain terrible, the shadow of last year’s player, Nesta went to pieces and Crespo kept on missing chances.
However, with five matches remaining, Lazio at least seemed to try to qualify for the following year’s UEFA Cup. They won the first three and there was even a glimmer of hope for a miraculous Champions League qualification. The players made sure that did not happen, perhaps put off by the fact that a champions league qualification could mean Zaccheroni staying on as Lazio manager.
This takes us to Lazio-Inter, the final match of the season. Lazio needed to win to qualify for the UEFA Cup, Inter had a one-point lead over Juventus who were to play at Udine and two over Roma who faced Torino away from home.
The Lazio supporters' only concern was that hated rivals Roma should by no means win the scudetto and therefore Forza Inter!!!! Lazio played their best match of the season and won 4-2. The tens of thousand Inter fans at the Olimpico were distraught, Lazio managed to earn a 6th place finish and qualify for the Uefa Cup.
Zaccheroni (probably one of the worst manager’s in Lazio history) was shown the door, and Mancini was a very welcome return.
But money was too tight to mention and more iconic players would be leaving soon.
The Lazio player with most apperances in the season’s Serie A was Fiore with 30 games and leading scorer was Crespo with 13 goals.
Lazio 2001-02
Competition | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals scored |
Serie A | 34 | 14 | 11 | 9 | 50 |
Coppa Italia | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
Champions League | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 9 |
Total | 46 | 19 | 11 | 16 | 65 |
Top five appearances
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League |
Fiore | 40 | 30 | 20 | 8 |
Lopez | 38 | 29 | 1 | 8 |
Peruzzi | 37 | 27 | 2 | 8 |
Stankovic | 36 | 27 | 4 | 5 |
Couto | 35 | 29 | 2 | 4 |
Giannichedda | 35 | 28 | 3 | 4 |
Top Five Goal Scorers
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League |
Crespo | 20 | 13 | 4 | 3 |
Lopez | 12 | 10 | - | 2 |
Stankovic | 8 | z7 | - | 1 |
S. Inzaghi | 6 | 5 | 1 | - |
Fiore | 5 | 3 | - | 2 |
Let talk about Hernan Crespo
Hernan Crespo was potentially one of the best centre forwards Lazio has ever had. Powerful, acrobatic, fast, he had a lot to offer but in my humble opinion came up short in his time at Lazio.
Born in Florida, Argentina on July 5, 1975, he started his career in the youth teams of River Plate. He turned professional with the Argentine team and played until 1996, winning two Apertura titles. He was nicknamed "valdanito" after legendary Argentine striker Jorge Valdano (for their similar looks and goal scoring abilities).
In the summer of 1996 he moved to Parma where he stayed for four years proving all of his potential. By 2000 he and Gabrel Batistuta were considered two of the best centre forwards in the world. The latter would go on to play the last couple of years of his career with the other team from Rome, whereas Sergio Cragnotti, following Lazio’s scudetto, would spend an enormous amount of money to get Crespo: €55 million (which included cash plus Matias Almeyda and Sergio Conceicao) which just for a few days was the record signing of all time in world football, that until Luis Figo joined Real Madrid.
His first official match was the Super Coppa Final against Inter. He did not score but the attacking duo Claudio Lopez-Crespo looked devastating and Lazio triumphed 4-3, winning the cup.
The first year was a good one, in the end. He did not perform well under Sven Goran Eriksson and an injury certainly did not help. Even while off form, he was still able to create goal scoring chances but missed most of them. When he was in form however, he was devastating. As soon as Dino Zoff started managing the team, Crespo started to score regularly and he was one of the main stars of the season. He will go on to win the Italian golden boot with 26 goals in 36 games.
As mentioned earlier, his second year was not so good, not only for him personally, but also for the team. Lazio struggled to find a decent game organisation and Crespo scored “only” 13 goals.
The return of Roberto Mancini, this time as manager, created lots of hopes in the Lazio fans for the 2002-03 season. But Sergio Cragnotti was having considerable financial difficulties and someone had to be sold. The first player everybody had their eyes on was obviously Alessandro Nesta. Cragnotti hoped that Milan, Inter and Juventus would fight to the end to get the greatest defender of all time and that consequently the price would be really high. Instead there was a secret pact between them to get the player for a much lower price than his real value. All three clubs waited until the very last moments of the transfer window to force Lazio to agree on a low price. Milan clinched the deal and Cragnotti was forced to accept just €31 million. At this point a second player had to go and that would be Hernan Crespo who was sold to Inter for €36 million to replace Ronaldo who had moved on to Real Madrid.
He made a good contribution to Inter, especially in Champions League, and Chelsea set his eyes on him. His move to the UK was not a positive one due to continuous injuries. In 2004 he moved to AC Milan on loan where he performed well and his legacy there could have been even better had Milan held on to the 3-0 lead, with two of his goals, against Liverpool in the Champions League final.
Back at Chelsea in 2005, he then returned to Inter for three years in 2006. His final years were with Genoa and Parma.
During his career he won a number of trophies; three scudettos with Inter, a premier league with Chelsea, two Apertura’s with River Plate, 5 Italian Supper Coppa's (two with Inter and one each with Lazio, Parma and Milan), a Charity Shield with Chelsea and a Copa Libertadores with River Plate.
He played 73 games for Lazio: 54 in Serie A (39 goals), 5 in Coppa Italia (4 goals), 13 in Champions League (5 goals) and one Supercoppa Final.
He was a very important player for the national team and played for Argentina in three World Cups: 1998, 2002 (scoring one goal against Sweden) and 2006 (three goals). He also played in the 2007 Copa America. He played a total of 64 games for his country and scored 34 goals. He also won a silver medal at the Atlanta Olympic Games of 1996.
Lazio Career
Season | Total games (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Super Coppa |
2000-01 | 40 (28) | 32 (26) | 1 | 6 (2) | 1 |
2001-02 | 33 (20) | 22 (13) | 4 (4) | 7 (3) | - |
Totals | 73 (48) | 54 (39) | 5 (4) | 13 (5) | 1 |
Sources
Comments