Lazio have room for greater ambition
Fiorentina played well but Lazio were lethal and capitalised on the Viola’s mistakes. Today is also the anniversary of Luciano Re Cecconi’s absurd death.
Also on this day: January 18, 1987, Lazio Pisa 1-0. The Biancocelesti scored early but were lucky to bring home the two points. Player of the day: Paolo Mandelli
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 driven 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 some signs of improvement were showing especially since the controversial loss against Juventus in early December. Three wins and a draw plus the thrashing of Roma in Coppa Italia were a sign that success was just around the corner.
The match: Sunday, January 18, 1998, Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence
Fiorentina had not lost for the past ten games, Lazio had also started to do well in recent times so there was a lot of expectation for this match. It was the 2000th Serie A game for Fiorentina who had just signed Edmundo from Vasco da Gama but had left him on the bench.
In the first 10 minutes both teams had half chances but the first real threat for Lazio was a Gabriel Batistuta free kick, well saved by Luca Marchegiani in the 22th minute. Six minutes later Fiorentina scored. Cross from the left, Marchegiani punched the ball away, Sandro Cois picked it up just outside the penalty box and with a perfect volley sent the ball into the net. It was goal number 3000 in Fiorentina's history.
The 1-0 however was short-lived. Three minutes later Almeyda tried to pass the ball to Boksic, Pasquale Padalino fumbled and Boksic was free to run towards goal with 30 metres to go. No problem for the Alien, 1-1. Nedved had a shot saved by Francesco Toldo and Domenico Morfeo had a chance towards the end of the first half but his shot was wide.
The match changer occurred in the 49th minute. Stefan Schwarz punched Jugovic and was sent off. Eriksson moved Jugovic to the right in order to capitalise but Fiorentina were the team who had more chances. In the 16th minute Cois again was dangerous but his volley was wide. In the 26th minute Rui Costa passed the ball to Batistuta just inside the penalty box on the right. His shot hit the crossbar.
Lazio then decided that it was time to take advantage of the extra man. In the 78th minute Pavel Nedved crossed from the left, Mancini all alone in the centre in front of the goalkeeper fumbled, in came Roberto Rambaudi, 2-1 for Lazio. Six minutes later Lazio made it three. Rambaudi to Boksic who passed the ball to Nedved on the left just inside the box, big whack, 3-1, game over.
Big win for Lazio on the anniversary of Luciano Re Cecconi's absurd death.
Who played for Fiorentina
Toldo, Falcone (79' Tarozzi), Firicano (86' Robbiati), Padalino, Serena, Cois, Rui Costa, Schwarz, Oliveira, Batistuta, Morfeo (85' Edmundo).
Substitutes: Fiori, Bigica, Bettarini, Kanchelskis.
Manager: Malesani.
Who played for Lazio
Marchegiani, Pancaro, Nesta, Negro, Favalli (36’ G. Lopez), Almeyda (68’ Rambaudi), Venturin, Jugovic, Nedved, Boksic, R. Mancini (88’ Marcolin)
Manager: Eriksson
Referee: Cesari
Goals: 29’ Cois, 31' Boksic, 78’ Rambaudi, 84’ Nedved
What happened next
Lazio managed to go 16 games without losing, from Juventus Lazio 2-1 to Lazio Juventus 0-1. In the middle Lazio were just superb, beating Milan, Inter and Roma. Unstoppable, one could really see the change in mentality. On the eve of the game against Juventus, Lazio were two points behind the Bianconeri and were dreaming of winning the scudetto. However the Mother of all games proved to be fatal. Lazio tried very hard but Angelo Peruzzi saved everything and 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 whole atmosphere at the club. Lazio drew the next match and lost the following 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 and hope that Milan would not score. But when the Rossoneri went one up 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. The Biancocelesti 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 early on 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 Pavel Nedved
Pavel Nedved was one of the greatest players ever to have worn the Lazio jersey. A fighter who played mainly on the left side from midfield up, but he could use both feet indifferently.
Born in Cheb on August 30 1972, he started playing football at a very young age in the youth team of Tatran Skalna, to then move first to RH Cheb and then Skoda Plzen, where he played from 1986 to 1990.
In 1991 he turned professional and played for Dukla Prague for a year and then moved to Sparta Prague. He was one of the best players in Euro 1996 where the Czech Republic reached the final.
Zdenek Zeman had asked Cragnotti to sign Nedved back in 1995 when Pavel was Mr. Nobody but Cragnotti ignored him. He did not a year later and in 1996 Nedved joined Lazio.
It looked like a marriage made in heaven. Lazio needed a player on the left of Zeman’s midfield and with Zeman being Czech, Nedved would easily adapt to Italian football. He did not. It actually took him a while to adapt to the different culture and different way of working. Then Zeman got fired and was replaced by Dino Zoff half way through the season. Under Zoff the team improved and so did Pavel.
Nedved’s potential exploded under Sven Goran Eriksson and he became one of the best midfield players in Europe. He was one of the protagonists of that amazing team full of champions.
With Lazio he won a scudetto, the Coppa Italia twice, the Super Coppa twice, the UEFA Cup Winners Cup (scoring the winning goal in the final) and the UEFA Super Cup.
He played 207 games for Lazio (138 in Serie A, 22 in Coppa Italia, 30 in Champions League, 14 in the UEFA Cup, 2 in Super Coppa and 1 in the UEFA Super Cup) and scored 51 goals (33 in Serie A, 5 in Coppa Italia, 8 in Champions League, 4 in UEFA Cup and one in the Supercoppa).
In 2001, with Lazio in financial difficulty, Cragnotti sold Nedved to Juventus. But Pavel refused to sign for the Bianconeri, he wanted to stay with Lazio. Cragnotti shredded the signed papers and offered a contract extension to the Czech, who accepted. Everybody happy. But Luciano Moggi, Director General of the Bianconeri, had not thrown the contract away. He flew on a private plane to Rome and invited Nedved and his wife to go to Turin. It was difficult to say no to Moggi and Nedved signed the contract with Juventus. Goodbye Lazio.
Just like he did with Lazio, he became a fundamental player for Juventus staying for eight years, winning the scudetto twice and the Super Coppa twice. He won the Ballon D’Or in 2003. Once he stopped playing he became a member of the Juventus Board of Directors in 2010 and Vice President in 2015.
He played 91 games for the Czech Republic and scored 18 goals. He participated in Euro 1996, Euro 2000, Euro 2004 and the World Cup of 2006.
When he was playing for Lazio he was one of the most loved players but once he moved to Juve, the love turned first to hate and then complete indifference. Mind you it is not surprising. Pavel has spoken very little about his days at Lazio since he moved to Turin.
Lazio Career
Season | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Cup Winners Cup | UEFA Cup | UEFA Super Cup | Super Coppa |
1996-97 | 38 (10) | 32 (7) | 3 (1) | - | - | 3 (2) | - | - |
1997-98 | 43 (15) | 26 (11) | 6 (2) | - | - | 11 (2) | - | - |
1998-99 | 34 (6) | 21 (1) | 4 | - | 8 (4) | - | - | 1 (1) |
1999-00 | 47 (7) | 28 (5) | 6 (1) | 12 (1) | - | - | 1 | - |
2000-01 | 45 (13) | 31 (9) | 3 (1) | 10 (3) | - | - | - | 1 |
Total | 207 (51) | 138 (33) | 22 (5) | 22 (4) | 8 (4) | 14 (4) | 1 | 2 (1) |
Sources
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