Climbing up
Lazio win and now the unbeaten games are 13
Also on this day: February 15, 2015, Udinese Lazio 0-1. A cheeky, chipped penalty is all Lazio need to conquer the Friuli. Player of the day: Brayan Perea
The season so far
President Sergio Cragnotti was certainly not happy with what happened the previous season. Zdenek Zeman had been fired half way through and Dino Zoff had picked up the pieces and led Lazio to a UEFA Cup qualification.
Cragnotti had chosen Sven Goran Eriksson as manager. Sven had been working for Sampdoria for the last five years and had established a strong relationship with Roberto Mancini. Mancini had not renewed his contract with Sampdoria so Cragnotti convinced him to come to Lazio. It was a major change in philosophy: if Lazio had ambitions, they needed to think ambitiously.
A few other players that were to become the backbone of the best Lazio ever arrived in the 1997 summer transfer window: Giuseppe Pancaro, Marco Ballotta and Matias Almeyda. Vladimir Jugovic and the return of Alen Boksic were the other major signings.
In December Lazio lost Beppe Signori. The Lazio hero of the past years was not pleased with the new course. After initially being in the squad, Eriksson started putting him on the bench, preferring Mancini, Pierluigi Casiraghi and Boksic. The last straw took place in Vienna in the UEFA Cup tie with Rapid. Signori had been warming up for a while ready to take Mancini’s place on the field. The plan changed when Mancini got sent off. The problem was that nobody warned Signori to stop warming up. Beppe-goal was offended and asked to leave the club. Lazio sold him to Sampdoria in December. A real pity.
The change in Lazio between Zeman's mentality and Eriksson's was a bit slow at the beginning. Lazio were not playing all that well, even though they beat Roma 3-1 and had drawn in Milan both against Inter and Milan. But since the controversial loss against Juventus in early December, Lazio had 7 wins and two draws in Serie A, thrashed Roma in Coppa Italia and won a game in the UEFA Cup.
Lazio were joint third with Udinese, just three points away from second place.
The match: Sunday February 15, 1998, Stadio San Nicola, Bari
Lazio had to face Bari without Pavel Nedved, Almeyda, Diego Fuser, Paolo Negro and Boksic so this was going to be a good test to see how deep the Lazio squad was in the terms of quality players.
In the 3rd minute Vladimir Jugovic took a free kick that was well saved by Francesco Mancini. Seven minutes later, Diego De Ascentis brought down Guerino Gottardi in the box and for the referee it was a penalty. No problem for Jugovic who made it 1-0 for Lazio.
Beppe Pancaro had a chance immediately after. Corner for Lazio, the Bari goalkeeper missed the ball completely, Pancaro however could only shoot wide. From then on Bari began to put pressure on the Lazio defence and former Lazio player Thomas Doll was particularly motivated, but the Biancocelesti never really had to suffer much apart from a Guerrero attempt from a favourable position but went it miles from goal.
The second half followed the same script as the first, with the Lazio defence comfortably reducing risks to a minimum. In the 44th minute Bari could have changed everything. Klas Ingesson had the chance to hammer the ball in from very close range and equalise, but his shot hit the crossbar. Ball to Lazio who counterattacked. Jugovic flew into the box on the left and offered a comfortable tap-in to Roberto Rambaudi. 2-0 and game over.
Lazio were still third but now by themselves and the number of consecutive games without losing increased to 13.
Who played for Bari
F. Mancini, De Rosa, Scala, Neqrouz, De Ascentis (46' Manighetti), Marcolini (46' Giorgetti), Ingesson, Volpi, Zambrotta (64' Allback), Doll, Guerrero.
Substitutes: Gentili, Campi, Bressan, Sordo.
Manager: Fascetti
Who played for Lazio
Marchegiani, Pancaro, Nesta (92’ Grandoni), G. Lopez, Chamot, Gottardi, Venturin, Jugovic, Marcolin (84’ Favalli), Casiraghi, R. Mancini (72’ Rambaudi)
Substitutes: Ballotta, Domizzi
Manager: Eriksson
Referee: Braschi
Goals: 10’ Jugovic (pen), 91’ Rambaudi
What happened next
Lazio were able to go 16 games in Serie A without losing, from Juventus Lazio 2-1 to Lazio Juventus 0-1. In the middle Lazio were simply great, beating Milan, Inter and Roma. Unstoppable, one could really see the change in mentality. On the eve of the game against Juventus, Lazio were just two points behind the Bianconeri and were dreaming of winning the scudetto. However the Mother of all games proved to be fatal. Lazio gave all they had but Angelo Peruzzi saved everything and referee Pierluigi Collina did the rest. He sent off Nedved perhaps too harshly and did not award a clear penalty to Lazio.
The loss deflated the environment. Lazio drew the next match and lost the other five. What happened? Lazio had played under continuous pressure and had reached the finals of both the Coppa Italia and the UEFA Cup. Too many games and too few players. The team just collapsed both physically and mentally.
In Coppa Italia, after eliminating Roma in the quarterfinals, they beat Juventus in the semis and faced Milan in the final. Having lost the first leg 1-0 in the last minute, Lazio had to win the return match by two goals and hope that Milan would not score. But when the Rossoneri scored with Demetrio Albertini at the beginning of the second half, Lazio needed to score 3 goals to win. They did so with the most amazing ten minutes in their history and brought home the Coppa Italia. Lazio had not won anything since the 1974 scudetto.
In the UEFA Cup, Lazio had the better of Auxerre in the quarterfinals and Christian Vieri’s Atletico Madrid in the semis. The final against Inter was exactly a week after the win in Coppa Italia. Lazio fell behind in the early stages of the game but this time they did not have the energy to come back. They lost their first European final 3-0.
A marvellous season for Lazio, the best since 1974. Mancini was the player with the most games played (51), Boksic and Nedved the top goal scorers with 15.
Lazio 1997-98
Competition | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals scored |
Serie A | 34 | 16 | 8 | 10 | 53 |
Coppa Italia | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 22 |
UEFA Cup | 11 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 16 |
Total | 55 | 30 | 12 | 13 | 91 |
Top five appearances
Top five goal scorers
Let’s talk about Giorgio Venturin
Giorgio Venturin was born in Bollate on June 9 1968. He began his footballing career with Torino in 1983 and stayed there, with the exception of a year on loan at Cosenza in Serie B in 1988 and one in Naples in 1990, until 1993.
He signed for Lazio in 1994, wanted by Zdenek Zeman, but a year later Lazio sent him on loan to Cagliari. Back at Lazio in 1996 he stayed until January 1999 when he was sold to Atletico Madrid. With the Biancocelesti he was one of the key players in the transition from Zeman’s team to Sven Goran Eriksson’s triumphant squad. With Lazio he won a Coppa Italia, a Super Coppa and a Cup Winners Cup.
His adventure with Atletico did not go too well, as the Colchoneros were relegated in his second year. He returned to Torino in 2000 and stayed a couple of years before ending his professional career first with Taranto and then with Cisco Lodigiani.
Venturin later went on to train the youth teams of Cisco Roma and in 2008 was Director of the club. He now works for the Italian Under-21 national team as a talent scout.
Giorgio Venturin was a good midfielder and was fundamental in Lazio’s win against Milan in the Coppa Italia final of 1998. He played 119 games for Lazio (80 in Serie A, 20 in Coppa Italia, 4 in the Cup Winners Cup, 14 in the UEFA Cup and one Super Coppa final) and scored three goals, two in Serie A and one in the UEFA Cup. He also had one cap for Italy.
Lazio Career
Season | Total appearances (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Cup Winners Cup | UEFA Cup | Super Coppa |
1994-95 | 33 (1) | 22 (1) | 6 | - | 5 | - |
1996-97 | 16 | 16 | - | - | - | - |
1997-98 | 44 (2) | 26 (1) | 9 | - | 9 (1) | - |
1998-Jan 99 | 26 | 16 | 5 | 4 | - | 1 |
Total | 119 (3) | 80 (2) | 20 | 4 | 14 (1) | 1 |
Sources
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