Nervous win

Simon Basten
Aug 5, 2022
2 min read

Season 1999-00

Pre Season Friendly

Friday, August 6, 1999

Estadio Ramón de Carranza, Cadiz

Cadiz Lazio 0-2

Lazio win thanks to Mihajlovic and Inzaghi. A very nervous match

Lazio were in their pre-season training. They had been in Sardinia for a few days and had then moved to Sweden for a week. They had then played in the Netherlands and won the Amsterdam trophy beating Ajax and Atletico Madrid. Today they played in the Ramón de Carranza Trophy against the local team.

The match

Although Cadiz would be playing in the third Spanish tier for the 1999-00 season, Lazio could not underestimate the match, as Real Madrid had done some years earlier and been beaten. The Biancocelesti, without Alen Boksic but with Roberto Mancini, decided to exploit the superiore class of their players. The opposition’s only defence was to hack the opponents’ legs, feet and ankles as much as possible.

In the 20th minute the Biancocelesti scored. Sinisa Mihajlovic took a sly free kick, seemingly complaining about how near the wall was before taking a surprise shot that beat the Cadiz keeper. Ten minutes later all hell broke loose as Dani Ruiz decided to attempt to end Mancini’s career early. A massive brawl between the players followed, with pushes and an occasional punch which the referee took four minutes to settle. Three yellow cards later, the players calmed down.

Soon after Juan Sebastian Veron hit the crossbar and then Rojas was exceptional on a shot from the Argentinian.

In the second half Sven-Goran Eriksson took off Veron and Mihajlovic, and put in Beppe Pancaro, with Paolo Negro moving to the centre of defence, and Attilio Lombardo, allowing Dejan Stankovic to maneuvre at midfield. The Serb took control of the match and gave a splendid assist to Simone Inzaghi who hit the woodwork with a header. Cadiz also hit a post with a Jose Luis Loreto header off a Rafael Sastre cross. This was an incentive for the Biancocelesti to try to close the game and Kennet Andersson had a sitter after a Beppe Favalli cross but his header was too soft and easily saved by the keeper. Luca Marchegiani was called to work on a spectacular bicycle kick from Loreto before Lazio scored again. In the 80th minute Stankovic gave a good ball to Inzaghi who did not miss.