July 18, 2003: Lazio Chelsea 2-0
- Simon Basten
- Jul 18, 2024
- 9 min read
Updated: Jul 18
Excellent start
Lazio beat Chelsea in an early pre-season friendly
Also on this day: July 18, 2009: Lazio Universitatea Craiova 1-1, Friendly. Ballardini’s new 4-2-3-1 seems to work well
The season so far
The previous season had been a positive one under Roberto Mancini with Lazio arriving fourth and qualifying for the Champions League. The Biancocelesti had done so well that at one point they were top of the table, but then they lost steam in January.
Lazio did not have a lot of money for transfers and many players had left or were leaving: Luca Marchegiani had left for Chievo Verona and Beppe Pancaro was leaving for Milan. More were expected to go. New President Ugo Longo had to reduce costs. Arriving were Luciano Zauri and Ousmane Dabo from Atalanta, Matteo Sereni from Brescia and Fabrizio Casazza from Sampdoria.
The summer pre training was underway and this match was the first friendly in Rome.
The match: Friday, July 18, 2003, Stadio Flaminio, Rome
Great emotion and sadness at the beginning of the game with the minute's silence in memory of Sandro Ciotti, historic radio football journalist, former Lazio youth player and, as he said when he retired, a Lazio fan.
Jaap Stam after just three minutes had an opportunity but from a favourable position his shot was walled by a defender. A few minutes later Sinisa Mihajlovic, maybe remembering his famous goal at Stamford Bridge three years earlier, hit the crossbar on a free kick.
In the 12th Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink tried to surprise the Lazio defence directly from a corner kick but Massimo Oddo saved on the line. An exciting match with a very high rhythm, one could not really tell this was a July pre-season match. In the 32nd minute Lazio scored. Fabio Liverani passed to Oddo on the right wing, cross into the middle and Simone Inzaghi acrobatically put the ball behind Carlo Cudicini.
Lazio on top and Chelsea struggling in the second half as the Londoners in the first 30 minutes had great difficulty in being dangerous. And it was the Biancocelesti to score again in the 51st. Claudio Lopez took a free kick, cross in the box and Dejan Stankovic headed the ball into the net.
Lazio in good form, Chelsea with still a lot of work to do.
Who played for Lazio
Peruzzi, Oddo, Stam (70' Colonnese), Mihajlovic (46' Couto), Favalli (25' Corradi, 90' Zauri), Fiore (64' Rivaldo), Stankovic (70' D.Baggio), Liverani (46' Giannichedda), Cesar (90' Dabo), S. Inzaghi (75' Gottardi), C. Lopez (70' Castroman).
Manager: Mancini
Who played for Chelsea
Cudicini, Melchiot, Babayaro, Jonhson (83' Kitamirike), Huth, Gronkjaer, Lampard, Zenden, Stanic (46' Cole), Grudjohnsen (46' Forssell), Hasselbaink (68' Kneissl)
Substitutes: Ambrosio, Di Cesare
Manager: Ranieri
Referee: Gabriele
Goals: 32’ Inzaghi, 51’ Stankovic
What happened next
As mentioned earlier, further players left: Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid) as well as Enrico Chiesa (Siena), Dino Baggio (Blackburn Rovers on loan), and Lucas Castroman (Udinese on loan). Arriving were Demetrio Albertini, Roberto Muzzi and the return of Sergio Conceição.
The season started with the Champion’s League qualifying round against Benfica. A comfortable 3-1 win at home, followed by a 1-0 away win, was money in the bank for Lazio.
The group stage was dismal despite the excellent start with the away win against Beşiktaş. Two home draws against Sparta Prague and the Turkish side, plus a double defeat against Chelsea meant that Lazio had to win away against the Czechs in the last match of the group stage. Despite their numerous chances, Lazio lost in injury time and were last in the group, hence no UEFA Cup consolation.
In the Campionato, Lazio were fairly inconsistent. Good start, but then they just seemed to forget how to play in some matches and the 3-0 loss at Siena in late November was the prime example. However, when all seemed like doom and gloom, Lazio suddenly woke up and beat Juventus 2-0 and Inter 2-1. Recovery? No. As usual for Mancini teams, January was the most negative month. Just 4 points in the previous season and just four in this one. They stayed fourth for quite a while but then slipped to sixth after losing to Juventus in the 29th game.
However, with three games to play, Lazio were fifth, just one point behind Inter who were in the Champions League zone. But in the two games against Reggina and Brescia, the Biancocelesti only managed to pick up one point so for 2004-05 it would be UEFA Cup football.
But the real Lazio were seen in Coppa Italia. After easily dispatching Modena, in January Lazio had to face Parma in the quarterfinals. Stankovic scored both at home and away and gave Lazio the pass for the semi-final. It was his final game for Lazio as he was then sold to Inter.
In the semi-final Lazio surprisingly won in Milan in the first leg and in the second leg at home put on a wonderful display, perhaps one the best games Lazio have ever played, at least in its recent history, and won 4-0.
The final was against Juventus with the first leg at home. Lazio won 2-0 but it could have been even better as the Biancocelesti played at a similar level to the Milan game and also missed a penalty. The return match was complicated and Lazio went 2-0 down, but a splendid header from the worst player on the pitch up to that moment, Corradi, followed by a Fiore equaliser, gave Lazio their fourth Coppa Italia.
The financial difficulties left the players and the manager uncertain about the future and many used the season to plan for the next. Mancini started secret talks with Inter and tempted most of Lazio’s players to go with him. Stam told the club that he had no intention of continuing to play for Lazio once his contract was over but was not interested in following Mancini.
The 2003-2004 season was the end of an era. Nothing would ever be the same. Claudio Lotito was on his way.
Let’s talk about the Stadio Flaminio
Many Lazio fans consider the Stadio Flaminio as the Biancocelesti's natural home. But why is that? Here we will try to give a bit of historical background.
Before the Olympic Games
The area where the Stadio Flaminio is now used to hold two stadiums: Campo Rondinella and the Stadio Nazionale.
Campo Rondinella was owned by Lazio. It used to be located where the road in front of the Stadio Flaminio is now. It was a proper stadium inaugurated on November 1 1914 with the match against Audace. But just a few months later Italy joined the First World War and the club gave the use of the football pitch to grow vegetables.
When life went back to normal, the Biancocelesti played there until 1931 when Lazio moved to the Stadio Nazionale, more or less where the Stadio Flaminio is now. The latter, built in 1911, was restructured in 1928 and used for the World Cup of 1934. Roma started playing there too, in 1940. Lazio also continued to train there until 1958. In 1957 there was a fire which destroyed the stands but the pitch was not damaged.
In 1953 both teams moved to the Stadio Olimpico and the Stadio Nazionale was more or less abandoned until in 1955 Rome won the bid to host the Olympic Games of 1960. At this point Stadio Nazionale was demolished and the new Stadio Flaminio was built together with the small sports hall just outside it. The Campo Rondinella became a parking lot. The Flaminio hosted a few games of the Olympic Football tournament in 1960.
Since the Olympics
It was then occasionally used by Lazio during the course of the years for their home games. In 1989, due to the fact that the Olimpico was undergoing a restructuring for Italia '90, Lazio and Roma were forced to move there for their Serie A games.
In the 1980s the Stadium started hosting concerts and saw U2, Michael Jackson, Genesis and the Rolling Stones perform there. The concerts had to be abandoned due to protests from the locals about the excessive noise. At this point, from 2000, it was used to host Italy’s six nations rugby matches.
The need to have rugby games in a bigger stadium meant that Italy moved to the nearby Stadio Olimpico in 2012 and this resulted in a gradual abandonment of the structure. There have been many attempts at restructuring it but have all failed. The heirs of Antonio Nervi, the architect who planned the Flaminio, have always been adamant that it should remain as it is so this has marred any idea of demolition and rebuilding.
Lazio have always considered the Flaminio their home and fans have often put pressure on the club to take control of it. But there are a number of problems. Basically, the whole structure should be demolished, lowered, and the new stadium should meet all the modern standards, that is, with a roof, adequate parking areas and the possibility to use the structure seven days a week. This has not been possible due to the enormous costs involved and also to the fact that it has been bound by the Superintendency of Fine Arts due to its exceptional architectural value. But this could be overcome if the Rome City Council overrules this restriction.
The Flaminio today is completely abandoned. Crumbling and full of weeds. It is a great shame.
(above photos by Simon Basten)
Over the last couple of years there was a ping pong of statements from the City Council and Lazio President Claudio Lotito. The council has urged Lazio to present a plan for a new stadium without indicating how it could be done. This had prevented Lotito from acting, but in recent months the situation has changed.
Lotito met with the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, on July 8, 2024, to show the council what the plan of action is and to have some information of what he can do. Lazio wants a 50 thousand seater stadium with roof, and has been given the OK from the city. "The meeting went well", said Lotito. "We have given a deadline to better select the technical aspects: until October. I think the municipal administration understood the seriousness and meticulousness with which we faced the problem, trying to safeguard the regulatory aspects and the entire architectural aspect of the Flaminio stadium. The mayor was pleasantly impressed by this point of view, he said that he appreciated the work we have carried out which is to protect both the preservation of the architectural spirit and the future perspective".
Current situation
On December 13, Lazio President Claudio Lotito presented a pre-feasibility study for the Stadio Flaminio project to the mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri. And it looks as if the outcome was very positive.
At the end of the meeting, Gualtieri stated, as reported by the Corriere dello Sport, “it went well, President Lotito and his team showed us the pre-feasibility study for the realization of the redevelopment of the project on the Flaminio stadium. A beautiful project, it will have to be examined in detail but we are happy that it has been announced that the proposal will be formally launched, thus triggering the administrative procedure. Now we will work to examine it in detail. The basic lines of the idea are very nice, both that of redeveloping the Flaminio in a broader urban regeneration of the area, and the design idea of enhancing the structure by helping to conserve it and expanding the capacity. These are procedures that require in-depth study of the papers, but I consider the fundamental points of the presentation positive. We are satisfied, we complimented the quality of the work presented to us”.
Lotito stated that “they appreciated the work we did and which highlights Lazio's desire to redevelop the Flaminio stadium, safeguarding its architectural value but above all the area in which the facility resides. We are not just building the stadium for Lazio, but for the city of Rome. It means redeveloping it in terms of traffic, acoustics, environment and initiatives for the people who live in the area for an investment of around 400 million euros. We will try to speed up the process, but it will probably take no less than three years for completion. Now there is a bureaucratic process to respect, we will proceed step by step, we will present the official request. Our idea is to restructure this city asset which is the only stadium in Rome built for football”.
Lotito’s plan is to have a 40-50 thousand seat football ground with a roof. The Lazio president also spoke about the plans for the entire Flaminio area. “We thought of closing the area with a restricted traffic zone when sporting events take place enabling everyone, especially those people who come from outside Rome, to reach the stadium with exchange car parks. The people who arrive with a ticket for the game will also have parking, so they can leave the car and with a shuttle, in six minutes, arrive inside the stadium. The area can only be reached by scooters and cycle paths. The aim is also to redevelop a bridge that had not been used and was then demolished and of which only the pylons remain".
On July 17 the Corriere della Sera wrote that the presentation of the plans have continued. At the moment Lazio needs to present four reports, including two of the most delicate ones, that are the environmental impact and the mobility impact. These two reports are crucial for the realization of the project.
Sources
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