July 26, 1997: Lazio Venezia 2-2, friendly
- Simon Basten
- 4 hours ago
- 5 min read
Signori Brace Not Enough as Venezia Fight Back
Lazio twice took the lead through Giuseppe Signori, but defensive lapses and a late penalty allowed Venezia to claim a deserved draw in an entertaining match
The season so far
President Sergio Cragnotti was certainly not happy with what had happened the previous season. Zdenek Zeman was sacked half way through and Dino Zoff had picked up the pieces and led Lazio to a UEFA Cup qualification.
Cragnotti had chosen Sven-Goran Eriksson as manager. Sven had been working for Sampdoria for the last five years and had established a strong relationship with Roberto Mancini. Mancini had not renewed his contract with Sampdoria, so Cragnotti convinced him to come to Lazio. It was a major change in philosophy: if Lazio had ambitions, they needed to think ambitiously.
A few other players, that were to become the backbone of the best Lazio ever, arrived in the 1997 summer transfer window: Giuseppe Pancaro, Marco Ballotta and Matias Almeyda. Vladimir Jugovic and the return of Alen Boksic were the other major signings.
Lazio were in their pre-season training at Vigo di Fassa near Trento and had played a couple of friendlies. Today though the opposition was stronger, a good team from Serie B
The match: Saturday, July 26, 1997, Stadio Comunale, Moena
Lazio made a flying start, with Beppe Signori opening the scoring after just 11 minutes, helped by two defensive mistakes from Alessandro Dal Canto and Simone Pavan. Venezia, however, looked organised and composed, pressing in midfield and showing greater determination to impose a competitive edge on the game. Lazio struggled to cope with the tempo, and in the 29th minute the Venetians equalised through an own goal by Roberto Mancini. Giuseppe Iachini tried a shot from outside the box, deflection off Mancio, nothing Luca Marchegiani coud do.
Ten minutes later, Marchegiani produced an excellent save, diving brilliantly to turn a powerful first-time effort from Michele Cossato around the post for a corner, after he had been set up in the area by a header from Mauro Zironelli. Lazio were struggling, but at the start of the second half, in the 53rd minute, they regained the lead through Signori, who reacted quickest to turn in the goalkeeper's weak parry following a shot from Diego Fuser. As in the first half, however, Lazio seemed to suffer from a kind of "victory syndrome", allowing Venezia to regain control of the match. In the 72nd minute, the referee was lenient in overlooking a foul by Beppe Favalli on Stefan Schowch inside the penalty area. But when Marco Ballotta brought down the dangerous Venezia striker in the 79th minute, there was no doubt about the penalty. Schowch converted from the spot to earn Venezia a deserved equaliser.
Who played for Lazio
Marchegiani (58' Ballotta), Negro, Favalli, Lopez (58' Gottardi), Grandoni, Fuser, Jugovic, Nedved (69' Marcolin), Mancini, Casiraghi (46' Boksic), Signori (58' Rambaudi)
Manager: Eriksson
Who played for Venezia
Gregori (46' Bandieri), Dal Canto (46' Marangon), Brioschi (46' Filippini), Luppi, Iachini (46' Ballarin), Pavan (46' Baldi), Schowoch (46' Antonioli), Miceli (46' Polete), Zironelli (46' Cento), Cossato (65' Schwoch), Pedone (46' Ginestra)
Manager: Novellino
Referee: Spinelli
Goals: 11' Signori, 30' Mancini (aut), 53' Signori, 82' Schwoch (rig).
What happened next
The change in Lazio between Zeman's mentality and Eriksson's was a bit slow at the beginning. Lazio were not playing all that well, even though they beat Roma 3-1 in ten men and drew in Milan both against Inter and Milan.
However, after the controversial loss against Juventus in early December they managed to go 16 games in Serie A without losing, from Juventus-Lazio 2-1 to Lazio-Juventus 0-1. In between Lazio were simply brilliant, beating Milan, Inter and Roma. Unstoppable, one could really see the change in mentality. On the eve of the game against Juventus, Lazio were only two points behind the Bianconeri and were dreaming of winning the scudetto. However, the Mother of all games proved to be fatal. Lazio gave all they had but Angelo Peruzzi saved everything and referee Pierluigi Collina did the rest. He sent Nedved off perhaps too harshly and did not award a clear penalty to Lazio.
The loss deflated the Lazio world. Lazio drew the next match and lost the next five. What happened? Lazio had played under continuous pressure and had reached the finals of both the Coppa Italia and the UEFA Cup. Too many games and too few players. The team just collapsed both physically and mentally.
In Coppa Italia, after eliminating Roma in the quarterfinals, they beat Juventus in the semis and faced Milan in the final. Having lost the first leg 1-0 in the last minute, Lazio had to win the return match by two goals and hope that Milan did not get an away goal. But when the Rossoneri scored with Demetrio Albertini at the beginning of the second half, Lazio needed to score 3 goals to win. They did so with the most amazing ten minutes in their history and brought home the Coppa Italia. Lazio had not won anything since the 1974 scudetto.
In the UEFA Cup, Lazio had the better of Auxerre in the quarterfinals and Christian Vieri’s Atletico Madrid in the semis. The final against Inter was exactly a week after the win in Coppa Italia. Lazio fell behind in the early stages of the game but this time they did not have the energy to come back. They lost their first European final 3-0.
A marvellous season for Lazio, the best since 1974. Mancini was the player with the most games played (51), Boksic and Nedved the top goal scorers with 15.
Lazio Jersey 1997-98
Image Sources: Football Kit Archive except third jersey (SS Lazio Museum)
After 10 years as the club's kit supplier, this would be the final season with Umbro.
The shirt was very attractive and carefully designed, featuring a soft shade of sky blue and references to the club's official emblem incorporated into the fabric's pattern. The collar and cuffs were trimmed in blue with a thin white stripe.
The shirts worn by the Biancocelesti players featured the same velvet-like "flock" heat-transfer lettering used the previous season. Only one font style was used for the names, which were curved. The number font was more rounded in design than that of the previous season. The numbers no longer featured the Umbro logo placed diagonally across them, but instead had it positioned at the bottom of the number. For the UEFA Cup, the numbers featured neither lettering nor a logo.
Umbro retained the same shirt design used the previous season for the away kit. On the yellow second shirt and the blue third shirt, the "S.S. Lazio" lettering was embroidered into the fabric pattern, while on the retail version it was printed. The blue third shirt was also brought back for this season and was nicknamed "Nuvola" ("Cloud") because of the graphic pattern across the chest, which resembled a bank of clouds. The shirt retained the same personalisation design as the previous season, with the Umbro lettering and a more square-shaped graphic.
The goalkeeper shirt still continued in the vein of the “Campos effect”. Jorge Campos, Mexican goalkeeper, played with in shirts he designed himself with very bright colours and rather bizarre, for the footballing media, patterns. This year the jersey was slightly more straight forward compared to previous seasons, but still intriguing.
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