Lazio Inter 2-1

Season 1999-00

Coppa Italia Final, First Leg

Wednesday, April 12, 2000

Stadio Olimpico, Rome

Lazio Inter 2-1

Lazio beat Inter in the first leg of the Coppa Italia final, but the match is marred by the terrible injury suffered by Ronaldo

In Coppa Italia Lazio were through to the final. Lazio had eliminated Ravenna (1-1, 4-1), Juventus (2-3, 2-1) on away goals rule and Venezia (5-0, 2-2). In the final they faced Inter who had beaten Bologna (2-1, 3-1), Milan (3-2, 1-1) and Cagliari (3-1, 2-1).

This evening was the first leg. The return match would then be on May 18, after the end of the league fixtures.

The match

Lazio started well and in the beginning of the match a Diego Simeone shot was parried into corner by Angelo Peruzzi. But it was Inter who scored first in the 8th minute. Roberto Baggio to Adrian Mutu on right, low cross into the box and Clarence Seedorf volleyed the ball into the net as Guerino Gottardi just watched him.

The Biancocelesti took their time to react with the exception of a couple of attempts on free kicks by Sinisa Mihajlovic but with no results. In 31st minute cross into the box, Simone Inzaghi passed the ball back to Pavel Nedved whose shot went wide. In the 40th minute Simeone on the left passed to Nedved in the top hand corner of the Inter penalty area. The Czech international controlled the ball and with a clinical shot beat Peruzzi.

In the 52nd minute Lazio went ahead. Sergio Conceiç ã o crossed from the right and Simeone headed the ball in.

Six minutes later manager Marcello Lippi sent in Ivan Zamorano and Ronaldo, coming back after a long period of inactivity due to injury. The Brazilian’s match lasted six minutes. While he was running he got injured again. A horrendous sight as his knee snapped. He immediately went to the hospital for a diagnosis: a complete rupture of the knee-cap tendons.

The match ended here. What happened was horrendous and obviously affected everybody present. Nobody really felt like playing anymore and the two teams wasted time until the end.

Lazio would have to battle it out in Milan if they wanted to win the cup.

Who played for Lazio

Ballotta, Gottardi, Couto, Mihajlovic, Pancaro, Conceiç ã o, Sensini, Stankovic (55’ Mancini), Simeone (81’ Almeyda), Nedved, S. Inzaghi (76’ Salas)