August 26, 2001: Lazio Piacenza 1-1
- Simon Basten
- Aug 26
- 6 min read
False start
Bad draw at the Olimpico, but Cragnotti signs Jaap Stam
Also on this day:
The season so far
In August Lazio had a Champions League playoff with FC Copenhagen. The first leg should have been a warning sign as Lazio, despite being dominant for most of the match, had thrown away the victory with a penalty and an Angelo Peruzzi mistake. However, the return leg had put everything in place and Lazio went through, even though they were not playing particularly well.
It was really no surprise. During the summer Lazio had sold Juan Sebastian Veron, Marcelo Salas and Pavel Nedved seemingly to cash in some desperately needed money. They had however also bought Gaizka Mendieta, considered one of the best players in the world at the time, but at a price way above what could be considered appropriate. Also leaving was Fabrizio Ravanelli (Derby Country) and Roberto Baronio had left on loan to Fiorentina. Joining Lazio were Stefano Fiore and Giuliano Giannichedda from Udinese (purchased the previous year but left at Udine on loan) and César from São Caetano. The latest news was the arrival of Jaap Stam from Manchester United. Sergio Cragnotti later said that the plan was to replace Alessandro Nesta with Stam but he could not get the right asking price and was forced to wait until the following season.
Today was the first game of Serie A against Piacenza.
The match: Sunday, August 26, 2001, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
In the third minute a great free kick from Claudio Lopez shaved the post. In the 12th a long range Diego Simeone shot was parried into corner by the keeper. There was not much else to add for the first half. Lazio were slow, Gaizka Mendieta obviously out of form, the only sparks came from Claudio Lopez. In the final minutes Hernan Crespo to the Spaniard who tried a shot well saved by Matteo Guardalben.
The Biancocelesti were a little bit better in the second half and scored in the 48th minute. Angelo Peruzzi’s big hoof towards the centre of the pitch was met by Claudio Lopez who advanced a few meters then tried a volley from thirty metres surprising Guardalben. A magnificent goal, his first in Serie A.
Piacenza however were certainly not beaten and in the 61st minute they equalised. Corner taken by Sergio Volpi, Alessandro Lucarelli headed the ball towards the goal but it was saved on the line by Lucas Castroman. Filippo Cristante on the far right of the box passed to Francelino Matuzalem, great shot, 1-1.
Dino Zoff made two substitutions in the 63rd minute: in came Simone Inzaghi and César for Claudio Lopez and Stefano Fiore. Whatever flicker of light there had been so far in Lazio’s game, at this point definitely petered out and Piacenza almost went ahead with Dario Hubner, but that would have been too much.
Biancocelesti with a lot of problems.
Who played for Lazio
Peruzzi, Pancaro, Nesta, Colonnese, Favalli, Castroman, Mendieta, Simeone (82’ Stankovic), Fiore (63’ César), Crespo, Claudio Lopez (63’ Inzaghi)
Substitutes: Marchegiani, Ola, Giannichedda, Poborsky
Manager: Zoff
Who played for Piacenza
Guardalben, Cristante, Lamacchi, Lucarelli, Tosto (81' Cardone), Gautieri, Matuzalem, Volpi, Di Francesco (55' Ambrosetti), Hubner, Poggi (74' Rastelli)
Substitutes: Orlandoni, Maltagliati, Miceli, Amauri
Manager: Novellino
Referee: Bolognino
Goals: 48’ Claudio Lopez, 61’ Matuzalem
What happened next
The start was slow. Too slow. The team was demotivated and badly prepared. Dino Zoff had decided to go for a 3-5-2 formation, but the team was just not right. After the draw against Piacenza, there was a draw against Perugia and another against Torino. Forced to play against Galatasaray away in the first Champions League match on the infamous September 11, they lost 1-0.
The situation precipitated in the second Champions League match against Nantes. The 3-1 defeat at home was the final nail in the coffin for Zoff. He was replaced by Alberto Zaccheroni, former Udinese and Milan manager. In the meantime Lazio had signed Fabio Liverani from Perugia in the winter transfer session.
Zaccheroni’s start in the Campionato was a disaster, not so much for the result (one can lose against AC Milan) rather for the increasing amount of injuries: Giuseppe Favalli, Hernan Crespo, Nesta and Dino Baggio. After five games Lazio were still to win a match and had scored only one goal in Serie A and one in Champions League.
However, things improved, Lazio started to play better and in Serie A by December they were on a roll: five consecutive wins including beating Juventus. But it was to no avail. Struggling to find a minimum organisation, the team just did not have that continuity that was necessary to reach the top positions. Mendieta was completely at a loss and did not play a decent match the whole season.
Rock bottom was reached on March 10 when Lazio lost the derby 5-1. The line-up chosen by Zaccheroni was incomprehensible and his future at Lazio was clearly doomed. The continuous rumours that Roberto Mancini would be coming back to manage Lazio did not help the situation. The players were distracted. Karel Poborsky was just plain terrible, the shadow of the previous year’s player, Nesta went to pieces and Crespo kept on missing chances.
However, with five matches remaining, Lazio at least seemed to try to qualify for the following year’s UEFA Cup. They won the first three and there was even a glimmer of hope for a miraculous Champions League qualification. The players made sure that did not happen, perhaps put off by the fact that a champions league qualification could mean Zaccheroni staying on as Lazio manager.
This takes us to Lazio-Inter, the final match of the season. Lazio needed to win to qualify for the UEFA Cup, Inter had a one-point lead over Juventus who were to play at Udine and two over Roma who faced Torino away from home.
The Lazio supporters' only concern was that hated rivals Roma should by no means win the scudetto and therefore Forza Inter!!!! Lazio played their best match of the season and won 4-2. The tens of thousands Inter fans at the Olimpico were distraught, Lazio managed to earn a 6th place finish and qualify for the Uefa Cup.
Zaccheroni (probably one of the worst managers in Lazio history) was shown the door, and Mancini was a very welcome return.
But money was too tight to mention and more iconic players would be leaving soon.
The Lazio player with most appearances in the season’s Serie A was Fiore with 30 games and leading scorer was Crespo with 13 goals.
Let’s talk about Daniel Ola
Daniel Ola was born in Accra, Ghana, on November 23 1982.
He started his football career with King Faisal's Babies in Nigeria and in 1999 he moved to Switzerland to play for Etoile Carouge. Here he was noticed by Lazio scout Sergio Vatta who first tested him in the Viareggio Tournament and then signed him in the summer of 2000 to play for the Primavera. That year he won the U19 scudetto and had a moment of notoriety on May 6 2001 when, following incidents of racism, he was called up to the first team and put on the bench for the Lazio Bari game. In the summer of 2001 he did the pre-season training with the first team, played a few friendlies, appeared on the bench in the first Serie A fixture, but was then loaned first to Chievo in Serie A (one appearance) and then to L’Aquila in Serie C1 where he played a season and a half with 47 appearances and 3 goals.
After a brief loan he made a permanent move to Teramo in C1 in 2003 where he played 50 games and scored 7 goals in two seasons. He then signed for Cesena in Serie B in 2005 and played three seasons there. In the first, the team reached the playoff semi-finals and in the third they were relegated. He made 71 appearances with one goal.
He then played for many teams: Botev Plovdiv in Bulgaria, Persebaya Surabaya in Indonesia, Jurmala and Daugava in Latvia (with the latter winning a league title, national cup and Super Cup). He was even called up by the Nigerian national team in 2008, but did not play. Back in Italy in 2014 he appeared for Fidelis Andria, Bisceglie, Barletta, AZ Picerno and Manfredonia. His final years of active football were with Buccino and Ginosa in the minor tiers.
Ola was a promising central defender, but not quite Serie A material.
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