July 22, 1999: Göteborg Lazio 1-1, Friendly

Good vibrations

Despite very limited training, Lazio play well in Göteborg. The future looks promising.

Player of the day: Stefano Di Fiordo

Also on this day: July 22, 2017: Lazio Spal 2-0, Friendly. Lazio beat Spal in a Serie A appetiser thanks to immobile and Keita

Source Lazio Wiki

 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.

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.

Lazio were in their pre-season training. They had been in Sardinia for a few days and had now moved to Sweden for a week. Today was their first friendly.

The match: Thursday, July 22, 1999, Nya Ullevi Stadion, Göteborg

With very little preparation indeed, Lazio faced tough opposition. Göteborg, physically way further ahead than the Biancocelesti (their season started in April), were a complicated sparring partner, but Lazio managed well despite falling behind in the 15th minute when Joakim Persson took advantage of a rare Alessandro Nesta mistake.

Lazio at this point started their show. Ten corner kicks in the first half. Sinisa Mihajlovic at one point crossed outside the box for a Juan Sebastian Veron volley which only just missed the target. Shortly after Veron did the same for Sinisa and this time the Swedish keeper was miraculous in parrying out for another corner. A minute before the goal, Veron had given a splendid assist to Simone Inzaghi who squandered the simple chance. In the 38th minute Lazio equalised thanks to a perfect free kick from Mihajlovic.

The Biancocelesti could have scored again in the second half but Kennet Andersson, following a splendid Roberto Mancini assist, took pity on his former teammates.

An excellent performance from Lazio. Much room for optimism.

Who played for Göteborg

B. Andersson, Pedersen, M. Nilsson, Anegrund, Landberg, Barlin (46’ Tetteh), Persson, P. Karlsson, Henriksson (62’ Svensson), Erlingmark, P. Andersson

Substitutes: F. Andersson, C. Karlsson, F. Karlsson, R. Johansson, S. Johansson

Manager: Lundin

Who played for Lazio

First half: Marchegiani, Negro, Nesta, Mihajlovic, Favalli, Conceicao, Stankovic, Veron, Nedved, Boksic, S. Inzaghi

Second half: Ballotta, Lombardo, Negro, Couto, Pancaro, Gottardi, Sensini, Marcolin, Cinelli, Andersson, Mancini

Substitutes: Concetti, Di Fiordo

Manager: Eriksson

Referee: Nisson

Goals: 15’ Persson, 38’ Mihajlovic

What happened next

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.

In the Champions League Lazio were drawn with Bayer Leverkusen, Dynamo Kiev and NK Maribor and won their group thanks to four wins, against the Ukrainians and Slovenians plus two draws against the Germans. The second part of the Champions League was another group phase, this time against Chelsea, Olympique Marseille and Feyenoord.

Qualification for the quarterfinal was put in peril by only getting one point against the Dutch, after beating the French twice. 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 half way 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.

Lazio, like many of the big teams, started the Coppa Italia in the fourth-round games and had to play against Reggiana, who had won their group in August. Lazio, with a few Primavera players in the starting eleven, plus more on the bench, had drawn the first leg away 1-1 (Alen Boksic the scorer for the Biancocelesti) and won the return match 4-1 at home thanks to a Sinisa Mihajlovic free kick double and goals by Simone Inzaghi and Boksic.

The quarter finals were much more difficult as Lazio had to face Juventus. At the end of the first half in Turin the Biancocelesti were losing 3-0 and were virtually out of the competition. But in the second half first a penalty scored by Fabrizio Ravanelli and then a goal by Roberto Mancini with ten minutes to go re-opened the contest. In the return match at the Olimpico Lazio scored in the second half with Boksic. Alessandro Del Piero equalised but Diego Simeone put Lazio ahead in the 81st minute and the Biancocelesti were able to hold onto the precious victory and went through on away goals.

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 in theory 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 doubles from Mancini and Mihajlovic (with two penalties) plus a Ravanelli goal. Silver Fox had also missed a penalty. The return was merely a 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 the campionato the Biancocelesti started well and by the sixth game took the solitary lead. Juventus caught up with Lazio in the 10th game after the Biancocelesti lost the derby. A trio of teams (Lazio, Roma and Juve) then led the Serie A for a few matches until Lazio sprinted off in the 14th. It did not last long. A loss on a frozen Venice evening on January 5 gave Juventus the lead again. Roma had fallen behind. Lazio regained the top of the table after beating Bologna in the Centenary game, but two goalless draws in the next two games gave Juve a three-point lead. By the 26th game the deficit increased to nine points and it looked as if it was 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 by 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 under water. Referee Pierluigi Collina tried a number of times to see if the ball would bounce on the waterlogged pitch, but no. There was a problem. If the game were 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. 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 it should have. 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 was goalless and the Biancocelesti won the double.

An amazing season.

Let’s talk about Stefano Di Fiordo

Source Lazio Wiki

Stefano Di Fiordo was born in Civitavecchia near Rome on February 5 1980.

He joined the Lazio youth sector in 1992 and played in the various categories. In 1998-99 he made one appearance on the bench in the match against Milan on November 22.

A defender, he joined the first team’s summer pre-training the following season and later signed for Padova in Serie C2. He later went on to play for Sora (winning a promotion to Serie C1), Rimini (two promotions to Serie C1 and Serie B) and Benevento.

Later on in his career he played in minor tiers with Cisco Roma and Astrea. He made 358 appearances in his long career with 3 goals.

Sources

Lazio Wiki (1)

Lazio Wiki (2)