Matador kills the Zebras
A Salas goal in the final minutes gives Lazio a rare win in Turin
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The season so far
The summer of 1998 was an interesting transfer window. President Sergio Cragnotti wanted to add greater quality to the squad but also wanted to cash in on players that after the Coppa Italia win the extraordinary previous season would now be worth a lot more. Those who left were Diego Fuser (Parma), José Chamot and Vladimir Jugovic to Atletico Madrid, Pierluigi Casiraghi to Chelsea and Beppe Signori, on return from his loan to Sampdoria, to Bologna. In the autumn window more players left: Giovanni Lopez to Napoli, Igor Protti to Reggiana and Roberto Rambaudi to Genoa, plus the loan of Dario Marcolin to Blackburn Rovers.
Who arrived? Marcelo Salas from River Plate, Christian Vieri from Atletico Madrid, Sinisa Mihajlovic from Sampdoria, Fernando Couto and Ivan de la Pena from Barcelona. Enough? No. Sergio Conceição from Porto, Dejan Stankovic from Red Star Belgrade and in the winter session Attilio Lombardo from Crystal Palace.
A decisive upgrade in quality and fire power.
The pre-season was not so great as Lazio lost to Benfica, Deportivo La Coruña and Atlético Madrid. Without Alessandro Nesta, seriously injured during the World Cup and who would return in December, the defence with Mihajlovic and Couto was too slow and not helped by the midfield. The first major test was the Supercoppa played in Turin on August 29. The Biancocelesti managed to win in the last second with a Conceição goal. Pavel Nedved had put them ahead and then in the second half a ridiculous penalty for a non-existent hand ball (the ball hit Lopez on the back) gave Juve the equaliser. This was the first Supercoppa win for the Biancocelesti.
In Serie A Lazio were not doing well. They were only tenth in the company of Cagliari and Bari. They had suffered from the Nesta and Christian Vieri injuries. A disappointing start with 3 wins, 5 draws and 3 defeats (but all in the last 5 games). The most recent result had been a 3-3 thriller against Roma.
In Coppa Italia they had reached the quarter finals after eliminating Cosenza 4-1 on aggregate in the second round and then beaten Milan 4-2 on aggregate. In the quarter final first leg they had beaten Inter 2-1. The return game would be on .
In the Cup Winners Cup Lazio had qualified for the quarter finals after eliminating Lausanne on away goals and Partizan Belgrade 3-2 on aggregate.
Juventus were reigning champions and were currently in joint 4th position with Milan, on 18 points. Not an easy game.
The match: Sunday, December 6, 1998, Stadio delle Alpi, Turin
A 45,000-crowd turned up in the "Città della Mole" on a grey, December afternoon.
Juventus had a debutant in goal, Morgan De Sanctis and were without Edgar Davids and Alessandro Del Piero while Lazio had Sinisa Mihajlovic out injured but to compensate had Alessandro Nesta back after five and a half months.
Juventus started on the front foot. The Bianconeri basically attacked for the whole first half but Nesta proved to be almost back at his best already. The Juventus forwards were always blocked and the hosts had to rely on attempts by their midfielders.
The "Zebre" had attempts by Antonio Conte deflected into corner, Alessandro Birindelli from the long range saved by Luca Marchegiani and then Jocelyn Blanchard wasted a good opportunity with a weak shot into the Lazio keeper's arms. A lot of pressure but few real chances. Lazio meanwhile had done absolutely nothing in attack. Half time Juventus 0 Lazio 0.
For the second period an injured Ciro Ferrara did not emerge again and was replaced by Mark Iuliano.
In the second half Juventus' pressure subsided and Lazio started to show their faces up front. Sergio Conceição blasted just over the bar after a clever back heel by Roberto Mancini and soon after De Sanctis had to sprint off his line to anticipate Mancini after a bad Iuliano back pass.
In the 61st minute a poor Blanchard was replaced by a striker Nicola Amoruso while for Lazio in the 65th Ivan de la Peña came on for Mancini. In the 69th minute came a blow for Lazio as Nedved limped off with a knee injury (possibly meniscus) and replaced by Guerino Gottardi. In the 75th minute Paulo Fonseca came on for a subdued Filippo Inzaghi.
Juventus then had a big scoring opportunity in the 78th minute. From a Fonseca free kick from the left, Zinedine Zidane got a header in but Marchegiani did well to get down low and save.
In the 81st minute came the winner and it was for Lazio. Conceição crossed in from the right to Marcelo Salas on the far post, the Chilean chested the ball down, pushed it lightly past Iuliano and then poked it past De Sanctis. All in a fraction of a second and in the same movement, a brilliant goal. Juventus 0 Lazio 1.
Juventus were beaten and had nothing more to give. Nesta commanded the Lazio defence perfectly in the last ten minutes plus injury time and the Biancocelesti clinched three precious points to sweep away the crisis and talk of sacking Sven-Goran Eriksson. Lazio moved up to joint 7th, only one point behind Juventus and Inter. A possible turning point of their season.
Juventus had tried hard in the first half but then faded. They had now gone six league games without a win, very un-Juventus like.
Who played for Juventus
De Sanctis, Birindelli, Ferrara (46' Iuliano), Montero, Pessotto, Blanchard (61' Amoruso), Conte, Deschamps, Di Livio, Inzaghi (75' Fonseca), Zidane
Substitutes: Peruzzi, Tudor, Tacchinardi, Perrotta
Manager: Lippi
Who played for Lazio
Marchegiani, Pancaro, Nesta, Negro, Favalli, Conceição, Stankovic (93' Venturin), Almeyda, Nedved (69' Gottardi), Salas, Mancini (65' De La Peña)
Manager: Eriksson
Referee: Borriello
Goals: 81' Salas
What happened next
This was the start of a run of nine consecutive wins.
At the end of the first half of the season Lazio were second with Parma and three points behind Fiorentina. But they were favourites having beaten both teams in the last two games. In the 21st game Fiorentina lost at Udine and the Biancocelesti drew at Cagliari joining the Viola at the top of the league. The next Sunday Lazio were solitary first after their win against Inter at home. Their lead had risen to five points by the 26th match and seven more than Milan who seemed to be completely out of the picture. In the next game the Biancocelesti drew with the Rossoneri. Vieri had scored but the goal had been disallowed due to a dubious off-side. But all was well since Lazio had a six-point lead over Fiorentina. Little did we know the disallowed goal would prove to be fundamental.
Lazio lost the next two games against Roma and Juventus and Milan were just a point behind with five games to the end. The Biancocelesti won three but so did Milan. Two games to the end and Lazio went to Florence. The Viola played like it was the Champions League final and went ahead with a Gabriel Batistuta goal. Lazio managed to equalise with Vieri but in the second half Fiorentina were awarded a penalty which they missed and the Biancocelesti were denied one despite an obvious foul on Salas. A final crossbar hit by Vieri sealed the draw. Milan beat Empoli 4-0 and went ahead. The last game at Perugia was a formality for the Rossoneri and they won a scudetto that Lazio had deserved to win.
In the Coppa Italia the Biancocelesti were eliminated by Inter 6-4 on aggregate.
But there was glory.
In the quarter finals of the Cup Winners Cup, Lazio demolished Panionios 7-0 on aggregate and faced Lokomotiv Moscow in the semis. An Alen Boksic goal in Moscow was enough to reach the final which was played in Birmingham against Real Mallorca. Lazio took the lead early with Vieri but the Spaniards soon equalised. In the 81st minute a splendid volley by Nedved gave Lazio their first European trophy and the last ever Cup Winners Cup.
The player with most appearances this season was Luca Marchegiani with 48. Top scorer was Salas with 24 goals in all competitions.
Let's talk about Iván de la Peña
Iván de la Peña López was born on May 6, 1976, in Santander. He started playing football for Racing Santander but his superior quality immediately attracted the scouts from Barcelona who signed him for the youth sector in 1992. He debuted in the first team under manager Johan Cruijiff on September 3 1995 in the 2-0 away win against Valladolid. He scored the second goal. But the great Dutchman did not really consider him much and the Little Buddah, as he was nicknamed, played mainly for the B team.
In 1996-97, under manager Bobby Robson, he and Pep Guardiola became the backbone of the Barcelona midfield, supplying assists and cover for Ronaldo, Hristo Stoichkov and Luis Figo. That year they came second in the Liga but won the Cup Winners Cup, the Coppa del Re and the Supercopa. Barcelona won the league the following season as well as the national cup and the UEFA Super Cup. The Little Buddha was a star and since Sergio Cragnotti wanted all the good players to come to Lazio, he set his eyes on him.
The signing of de la Peña was not easy and Cragnotti was “forced” to give him a massive salary, six billion lire a year. Only Diego Armando Maradona and Ronaldo had been paid more. Moreover, Lazio also had to sign his best friend, Fernando Couto.
He arrived at Lazio overweight and it took time for him to fit in but he gave a good contribution in Lazio’s win in Turin for the Supercoppa against Juventus and also played well in the first league game at Piacenza where he hit a crossbar. But then he got injured and when he returned he was no longer the splendid player everybody had admired so far. That season he made just 23 appearances with one goal as Lazio just missed out in the scudetto race but won the Cup Winners Cup.
In 1999 he was loaned to Olympique Marseille but made little impact just like in the subsequent year when he was loaned back to Barcelona.
He returned to Rome in 2001 and made one appearance against Torino and one in Coppa Italia. In 2002 he signed for Espanyol. He stayed nine years making 206 appearances with 9 goals and became one of their most loved players. He even scored a brace against Barcelona on February 21 2009 in their 2-1 win. On May 19 2011 he announced his retirement from active football but declared he still wanted to work in soccer. Luis Enrique took the opportunity and in the summer of 2011 he made him his assistant for his new managerial job with Roma. The fans were not pleased and de la Peña terminated his contract after a month. He then became a sports agent, representing Gavi amongst others.
In the summer of 2024 he was appointed assistant to Josè Mourinho at Fenerbahçe.
The Little Buddha played in every possible Spanish national team: Under 16s (17 appearances, 2 goals), Under 17s (4, 1), Under 18s (7, 3), Under 20s (5,2), Under 21 (10, 1), Olympic team (4) and five appearances for the national team.
With Barcelona de la Peña was a fantastic player, but after leaving he was unable to stay at that level. He was a huge disappointment for Lazio, a terrible waste of money. But his arrival coincided with that of Fernando Couto who went on to become a legend so at least something positive came out of it!!!
Lazio Career
Season | Total games (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Cup Winners Cup | Super Coppa |
1998-99 | 23 (1) | 15 | 3 | 4 (1) | 1 |
2001-02 | 2 | 1 | 1 | - | - |
Total | 25 (1) | 16 | 4 | 4 (1) | 1 |
Sources
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