January 26, 2000: Lazio Juventus 2-1, Coppa Italia

Simon Basten
3 days ago
8 min read

Lazio through to the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia

Two headers give the Biancocelesti a deserved win over Juventus

The season so far

In the previous season Lazio had gone agonisingly close to winning the scudetto. With eight games to the end of the season they were leading with five points over Fiorentina and seven over Milan. But a single point in the next three games reduced the cushion over Milan to just one point. Lazio then won three consecutive games but so did Milan. In the penultimate match in Florence, the Biancocelesti were held to a draw and denied a clear penalty by a distracted referee. Milan won, overtook them, and maintained the lead in the last game. But Lazio did win the Cup Winners Cup in the final against Real Mallorca.

In the summer transfer window, Lazio surprisingly sold their centre forward Christian Vieri to Inter in exchange for 90 billion lire (45 million euros) plus Diego Simeone. Other signings were Juan Sebastian Veron and Nestor Sensini from Parma, Simone Inzaghi from Piacenza and Kenneth Andersson from Bologna. The Swede would go back to Emilia Romagna in the winter and Lazio would add Fabrizio Ravanelli.

The 1999-00 season opened with the victory against the mighty Manchester United in Monte Carlo for the UEFA Super Cup with a Marcelo Salas goal. Another European triumph after having won the final Cup Winners Cup the previous year in Birmingham against Real Mallorca.

Lazio had passed the first group round of the Champions League. The 1999-00 Champions League saw the Biancocelesti participate for the very first time. In the 1974-75 season Lazio should have played the European Cup but had been disqualified following the brawl with Ipswich Town players in the UEFA Cup earlier the previous season.

Lazio were grouped with Bayer Leverkusen, Dynamo Kiev and Maribor. Two draws against the Germans, two wins against the Ukrainians and two against the Slovenians allowed Lazio to top their group and qualify for the second group round. Here they were joined by Chelsea, Olympique Marseille and Feyenoord. In the first two games they had won in France and drawn against the Londoners.

Lazio had been in the top places of Serie A right from the beginning and were even solitary leaders three weeks earlier. But two goalless draws, with a lot to say about the referees, had put them second, three points behind Juventus.

In Coppa Italia they had eliminated Ravenna 5-2 on aggregate and were to face Juventus in the quarter finals. In the first leg, they were 3-0 down after the first 45 minutes. But in the second half they managed to score two, leaving the tie still wide open.

The match: Wednesday, January 26, 2000, Stadio Olimpico, Rome

Despite the need to continue in the competition Sven-Goran Eriksson and Carlo Ancelotti put a number of reserves in their first eleven, hence in the first half the quality of the match was not great.

In the 11th minute Juventus had a chance with Zinedine Zidane well saved by Marco Ballotta, Jonathan Bachini tried to score on the rebound but Diego Simeone managed to clear. In the 16th minute there was a probable penalty for Lazio when on a cross from Pavel Nedved, Simone Inzaghi was brough down by Mark luliano but ref Pierluigi Collina, as often happens when it comes to Lazio vs Juve said to play on. The Biancocelesti went close to the lead in the 25th minute with a header from Beppe Pancaro, but apart from these three opportunities, nothing much happened.

Changes were needed to both teams and Eriksson was the first to realise this, sending in Alen Boksic for Attilio Lombardo in the interval. In the 54th minute Pancaro crossed from the left and the Alien headed the ball past Edwin Van der Sar. At this point enter Alessandro Del Piero and Juventus added greater power to their attack. In the 73rd minute Zidane to Del Piero left alone on the edge of the box, great shot and it was 1-1.

But Lazio wanted a win. Sinisa Mihajlovic, who substituted Guerino Gottardi in the 76th minute, took a corner in the 81st and Simeone with another header made it 2-1.

Juventus tried a final onslaught but Ballotta saved first on a Zidane free kick and later on a Gianluca Zambrotta shot.

Lazio in the semi-final where they would meet Venezia who after a goalless draw at home, managed to draw 1-1 in Florence.

Who played for Lazio

Ballotta, Gottardi (76’ Mihajlovic), Nesta, Negro, Pancaro, Lombardo (46’ Boksic), Stankovic (76’ Ravanelli), Simeone, Veron, Nedved, S.Inzaghi

Substitutes: Marchegiani, Couto, Conceição, Mancini

Manager: Eriksson

Who played for Juventus

Van der Sar, Mirkovic, Tudor, Iuliano, Birindelli (60' Zambrotta), Conte (69' Tacchinardi), Davids, Pessotto, Bachini (58' Del Piero), Zidane, Kovacevic

Substitutes: Rampulla, Ferrara, Redavid, Sculli

Manager: Ancelotti

Referee: Collina

Goals: 54’ Boksic, 73’ Del Piero, 81’ Simeone

What happened next

In the Champions League, qualification for the quarterfinal was put in peril as, after beating the French again, Lazio only got one point against the Dutch. In the final game against Chelsea, after having drawn at home, Lazio had to win at Stamford Bridge to clinch the qualification in first place (the top two teams went through) as a bonus, so they could avoid having to play the quarter final against Barcelona, Manchester United or Bayern. They managed to do so coming from behind in a spectacular game. In the quarterfinals Lazio played against Valencia.

Everybody thought that it would be an easy match, but Lazio collapsed in Spain. Without Luca Marchegiani and Alessandro Nesta, Lazio went 2-0 down after 4 minutes, re-opened the game thanks to an Inzaghi goal halfway through the first half, but Valencia netted another two goals and with ten minutes to the end were leading 4-1. Salas scored in the dying minutes to give Lazio a chance of qualification but another defensive blunder with just a few seconds to go, gave Valencia a three-goal lead. Fans were hopeful Lazio could recover at the Olimpico, but the Biancocelesti only scored one goal with Veron and went out of the Champions League. A real pity.

As far as Coppa Italia was concerned, whereas on the one side there were two big clashes in the quarter finals (Lazio vs Juve and the Milanese derby), the other two games should have been more one-sided: Cagliari-Roma and Fiorentina-Venezia. But the islanders eliminated the Giallorossi and an away goal by Venezia gave them a historic semi-final against Lazio.

In the first leg, Lazio destroyed Venezia 5-0 with braces from Mancini and Mihajlovic (with two penalties) plus a Ravanelli goal. Silver Fox had also missed a penalty. The return was a mere formality and Lazio drew 2-2 with an Inzaghi double.

Inter brushed off Cagliari and so met Lazio in the final. The first leg was in Rome on April 12. Inter scored immediately with Clarence Seedorf but Lazio managed to equalise with Pavel Nedved at the end of the first half. In the beginning of the second, Simeone put Lazio ahead so Marcelo Lippi put Ronaldo on the pitch, his first game in five months. Five minutes later the Brazilian broke his patellar tendon. The scene was dramatic and very sad. The game basically ended there.

In Serie A by the 26th game the deficit increased to nine points and it appeared to be all over for the scudetto. But on March 25 Lazio won the derby and Juve lost at Milan. The Biancocelesti were at -6 but the next match was in Turin against Juventus. Thanks to a goal from Diego Simeone, the Juventus lead was reduced to three points. However, Florence looked as if it would be fatal again as Lazio drew 3-3 and Juventus won in Milan against Inter.

There were four games to go. Everybody thought it was all over but manager Sven Goran Eriksson tried to get the team to believe in the impossible. In the 32nd game of the season Lazio beat Venezia and Juventus lost at Verona. Two games to go, two points difference. Lazio beat Bologna away and Juventus were winning 1-0 against Parma. Towards the end of the match there was a corner for Parma. Mario Amoroso crossed and Fabio Cannavaro equalised but the referee inexplicably disallowed it.

This was the talking point in Italy for the entire week. Juve had already won a controversial scudetto a couple of years back when a clear penalty on Ronaldo was not given to Inter in Turin. So, there was massive media pressure on the last two games of the season: Lazio-Reggina and Perugia-Juventus.

Perugia President Luciano Gaucci, ashamed of the lack of fighting spirit his team had shown against Milan in the last game of the previous season, stated that it would not be a walkover for Juventus. Lazio fans hoped for a draw and then to go to a playoff. And this is what was happening at the end of the first half. Lazio were winning 2-0 and it was still goalless in Perugia. But a massive storm had blown up over the Umbrian capital and the pitch was waterlogged. Referee Pierluigi Collina tried a number of times to see if the ball would bounce on the flooded pitch, but no. There was a problem however. If the game had been abandoned, they would have to start from scratch the next day. With what had happened in the previous match when Cannavaro’s goal was disallowed for no reason at all, the Italian referee felt that the repetition of the game would have been unfair. So, he insisted. Just when they were about to give up, the rain stopped. The pitch was not in ideal condition, but playable. The second half could recommence, an hour later than scheduled. In the 50th minute Alessandro Calori scored for Perugia. Juve did not manage to equalise and Lazio won their second scudetto.

Still smelling of champagne and without any training whatsoever since the Sunday match, Lazio faced Inter for the second leg of the Coppa Italia final. There were chances for both sides, particularly for Inter in the dying seconds of the match when Alvaro Recoba hit the woodwork, but the game finished goalless and the Biancocelesti won the double.

An amazing season

Let’s talk about Darko Kovačević

Darko Kovačević was born in Kovin in Serbia on November 18, 1973. He started his professional career with Proleter Zrenjanin in the Jugoslav Top tier where in two years he made 63 appearances with 25 goals.

He then signed for Red Star and continued to be lethal scoring 37 goals in 49 games. He won a Yugoslav league title and two national cups.

In 1995 he joined Sheffield Wednesday but had a number of problems adapting to the British way of life and after a year he left for Real Sociedad. In Spain he made 110 appearances with 53 goals attracting the attention of the big Serie A clubs. He joined Juventus in 1999 and in his first year played and scored considerably (20 goals in 44 games), but in his second he found less space due to the arrival of David Trezeguet. In July 2001 he joined Lazio in the deal that saw Marcelo Salas go to Turin. With the Biancocelesti he was pretty dismal and stayed just six months before returning to Real Sociedad. Back in familiar territory, he returned to form and in five years made 163 league appearances with 50 goals. His last two years of activity were with Olympiacos where from 2007 he scored 31 goals in 60 appearances.

He has 59 caps with the Yugoslav first and Serbia national teams with 10 goals. He participated in the 1998 World Cup and 2000 Euros.

After his retirement he stayed in football and became chief scout and sporting director at Olympiacos until 2018. He is currently sports director for the Serbian Football Association.

Kovačević was a big centre forward, very powerful and great goal scorer. At Lazio though he was a disappointment and stayed very briefly.