Good start
First league match with Zeman and first win thanks to Signori
Also on this day: September 4, 1991, Lazio Fidelis Andria 3-2, Coppa Italia. Lazio beat Andria in Coppa Italia but need to improve. Player of the day: Stefano Melchiori
The season so far
At the end of the 1993-94 season Sergio Cragnotti surprised everybody by giving the Lazio managerial job to Zdenek Zeman. The Czech coach had impressed the world with his incredible tactical organisation at Foggia. Two of his former players had been signed by Lazio during the summer: Roberto Rambaudi and Jose Chamot. They joined another former Foggia star Beppe Signori. Arriving were also Giorgio Venturin (Torino), Ivano Della Morte (Monza) and Daniele Adani (Modena). Leaving Lazio were Luigi Corino (Brescia), Luca Luzardi (Napoli), Dario Marcolin (Genoa on loan) and Claudio Sclosa (Cremonese, loan), all players that were considered unsuitable for Zeman’s style of play.
Dino Zoff, who had bored everybody to tears in recent years, was promoted to club President. In this way Cragnotti did not lose the charisma of the former World Champion, very important particularly for PR reasons.
Lazio had already played one official game, the first leg of the first round of Coppa Italia beating Modena 5-0. Today’s match was the first game of the campionato.
The match: Sunday, September 4, 1994, Stadio San Nicola, Bari,
First game of the season and there was a lot of curiosity to see how the Lazio players had adapted to Zdenek Zeman’s classic 4-3-3, The Biancocelesti were without Aron Winter and Alen Boksic.
In the 7th minute Beppe Signori gave a perfect assist to Pierluigi Casiraghi who only had to tap in the ball but Italy’s centre forward fumbled. Bari reacted two minutes later, when Gérson Capaça had a shot at goal but Luca Marchegiani parried into corner. In the 12th minute the Brazilian was again protagonist with a pass to Miguel Angel Guerrero who dribbled past Paolo Negro and Roberto Cravero but again Marchegiani saved.
In the 22nd minute Lazio scored. Roberto Rambaudi dribbled past Roberto Mangone on the right and sent in a perfect ball that Signori promptly placed in the back of the net.
Two minutes later Igor Protti from the right crossed into the box but Francesco Pedone was unable to make any contact. The Biancocelesti at this point tried to put the game to sleep and it took Bari another 13 minutes to be dangerous again with Guerrero but Marchegiani was ready. At the end of the half Beppe Favalli was forced to stop Gerson with a brutal foul and was sent off. Zeman took off Rambaudi and threw in another defender, Cristiano Bergodi.
In the second half Bari put pressure on the Lazio defence but were not dangerous until the 70th minute. Pedone to Guerrero, who feigned moving towards the byline but instead cut into the centre and found himself in front of the Lazio goalkeeper. His shot however went wide.
Sandro Tovalieri got a second yellow card in the 75th minute and the Bari pressure progressively relented.
Good first win for Lazio, in difficult circumstances. Nevertheless there was still a lot of work to do to find the right "Zemanesque" movements.
Who played for Bari
Fontana, Montanari, Mangone (55' Tovalieri), Bigica, Amoruso, Ricci, Alessio, Gerson (67' Barone), Guerrero, Pedone, Protti
Substitutes: Alberga, Tangorra, Gautieri.
Manager: Materazzi.
Who played for Lazio
Marchegiani, Negro, Favalli, Di Matteo, Chamot, Cravero, Rambaudi (46’ Bergodi), Fuser (67’ Bacci), Casiraghi, Venturin, Signori.
Substitutes: Orsi, Doll, Della Morte
Manager: Zeman
Referee: Collina
Goal: 22’ Signori
What happened next
The season started relatively well. Lazio’s main ambition was a place in Europe in some way or form and to play well. They managed to keep a high standard of play – a couple of 5-1’s (against Napoli and Padova) – despite an occasional pause (losing the derby for example). The team scored lots of goals, not surprising when one has Alen Boksic, Pierluigi Casiraghi and Beppe Signori in the squad. One could see that the Biancocelesti had enormous potential and if it were not for the occasional defensive blackouts, they could have done much better.
In a bit of a crisis with 5 games to go, they then won all of them taking them to second place behind Juventus.
The highlights of the season were four: a 7-1 win at home against Foggia, 8-2 win against Fiorentina, a 3-0 away win against Juventus and the 2-0 win over that other team from Rome.
In Coppa Italia, Lazio passed the first two rounds, with some difficulty in the second against Piacenza. In the quarterfinals they beat Napoli 3-1 on aggregate and faced Juventus in the semis. After losing the first leg at home 1-0, they were 1-0 down also in the second and in ten men, but they managed to equalise and almost made it to the final, but the woodwork denied the Biancocelesti and in the end a Roberto Baggio penalty handed the final to Juventus.
In the UEFA Cup, Lazio had some trouble scoring away from home. The Biancocelesti passed the first round comfortably but had to wait to the very last dying seconds before getting the better of Trelleborgs FF from Sweden in the second round. In the third, against Trabzonspor, the first leg was in Turkey and Lazio managed to score their first two away goals and reached the quarterfinals winning the home leg too. The Biancocelesti were then paired with Borussia Dortmund of former player Karl-Heinz Riedle. The first leg saw Lazio win 1-0 thanks to an own goal. Dortmund won the return match 2-0 with a non-existent penalty at the beginning of the game and a Riedle goal two minutes from time. Lazio were unlucky with Signori out due to injury and a referee who had clear problems with his eyesight (incredible penalty not given to the Biancocelesti).
Luca Marchegiani and Paolo Negro were the players with most appearances in the season (48, Casiraghi was the one with most matches in Serie A) and Signori the highest scorer (17 in Serie A and 21 in total).
Sadly, this was the last season at Lazio for Paul Gascoigne. He came back after the terrible injury of 1994 and played 4 matches. But Zeman’s type of game was too limiting for him so he was sold to Rangers during the summer.
Lazio 1994-95
Competition | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals scored |
Serie A | 34 | 19 | 6 | 9 | 69 |
Coppa Italia | 8 | 6 | - | 2 | 19 |
UEFA Cup | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 10 |
Total | 50 | 30 | 8 | 12 | 98 |
Top five appearances
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | UEFA Cup |
Marchegiani | 48 | 33 | 7 | 8 |
Negro | 48 | 32 | 8 | 8 |
Casiraghi | 47 | 34 | 6 | 7 |
Rambaudi | 46 | 32 | 7 | 7 |
Fuser | 45 | 32 | 6 | 7 |
Top Five Goal Scorers
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | UEFA Cup |
Signori | 21 | 17 | 4 | - |
Casiraghi | 15 | 12 | 3 | - |
Boksic | 11 | 9 | - | 2 |
Negro | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
Fuser | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 |
Let talk about Igor Protti
Igor Protti, together with Dario Hubner, is the only player to have been top season scorer for Serie A, Serie B and Serie C1. A remarkable feat.
He was born in Rimini on September 24, 1967 and started his footballing career in the youth teams of his hometown. He debuted professionally at 16 playing in C1. When he turned 18 he signed for Livorno still in C1 and stayed there for three years. He played quite a lot of games (83) but only started scoring regularly in his third year with 14 goals in all competitions. In 1988-89 he was loaned to Virescit Bergamo and had another positive season scoring 10 goals. In 1989 he signed for Messina in Serie B and scored 31 goals in three years.
His next step was an important one, he signed for Bari. They were in Serie B but after two years the Apulia side was promoted to Serie A. In his first three years he did not score much (22 goals in 79 league games) but in 1995-‘96 he finally exploded scoring 24 goals in Serie A, top scorer together with Beppe Signori.
Lazio President Sergio Cragnotti dreamed of putting these two players together, thinking that it would rain goals under manager Zdenek Zeman, so Protti joined Lazio, helped also by the fact that despite all of his goals Bari had been relegated to Serie B. Unfortunately it was not a good year for the Biancocelesti and half way through Zeman was replaced by Dino Zoff. He did score seven goals, including a last second goal against Roma in a derby with Lazio behind, but it was difficult to find the right equilibrium up front with Signori and Pierluigi Casiraghi. With the arrival of Sven-Goran Eriksson in 1997, as well as the return of Alen Boksic plus the signing of Roberto Mancini, Protti was loaned to Napoli in Serie A to get some playing time. It was a terrible year for the Neapolitan team who arrived bottom with just 14 points. He returned briefly to Lazio but with the addition of Marcelo Salas he found very little space so he was loaned out again, this time to Reggiana in Serie B. Alas another relegation.
In 1999-00 he returned to Livorno in Serie C1. The year after he was top scorer in Serie C1, a feat he repeated in 2001-02 and the Amaranto were promoted to Serie B, returning to the second tier after 31 years. In 2002-03 he was top scorer in Serie B. In 2002-04, Livorno arrived third and were promoted to Serie A, 54 years after the last time they played in the top tier. He scored 24 goals that season. He stayed one more year and Livorno managed to avoid relegation. He scored six league goals and at the end of the season decided to retire.
After he stopped playing he continued to work in football, first with Tuttocuoio (San Miniato-Pisa) and then back at Livorno as club manager. When the club went bust, he worked for the new Livorno team until 2022-23.
Protti was an incredible goal scorer. Not particularly tall, 1.71 metres, but he could be lethal in the penalty box. He scored 248 goals in his career and it was a pity that he arrived at Lazio in the wrong year.
Lazio Career
Season | Total appearances (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | UEFA Cup |
1996-97 | 34 (7) | 27 (7) | 3 | 4 |
Jul-Oct 1998 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - |
Total | 37 (7) | 29 (7) | 4 | 4 |
Sources
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