A sweet déjà-vu

Dag Jenkins

Oct 28, 2023

4 min read

Season 1998-99

Round of 16, First Leg, Coppa Italia

Thursday, October 29, 1998

Stadio Olimpico, Rome

Lazio - Milan 3-1

Lazio fall behind and then win 3-1 just like in the previous year's Coppa Italia final

Lazio's season had started triumphantly on August 29 when Lazio beat Juventus 2-1 in Turin to lift their first ever Italian Supercoppa.

In Serie A so far they had won 2 (including Inter 5-3 away) and drawn 4 (the first 3 and recently Vicenza 1-1 at home). The Biancocelesti were 4th on 10 points with Roma and Inter.

In the Cup Winners Cup the Biancocelesti had eliminated Lausanne on away goals in the round of 32 and had drawn 0-0 at home to Partizan Belgrade in the first leg of the last 16. The return match in Serbia would be on November 5.

Their Coppa Italia defence had started on September 9 with a 2-1 home win against Cosenza. They then won the return game 2-0 to set up tonight's last 16 clash against Milan. A repeat of the previous year's final.

Milan were currently 3rd in Serie A on 12 points. The Rossoneri had won 4 (including Roma 3-2 recently) and lost 2.

To get to this Coppa Italia game in Rome they had beaten Torino 3-2 on aggregate (0-2, 3-0).

This evening was only the first leg as there would be a return match in Milan on November 11.

The match: Thursday, October 29, 1998, Stadio Olimpico, Rome

Just under 25,000 turned up for this Thursday evening cup tie.

Lazio were without defender Alessandro Nesta (injured at World Cup), midfielders Ivan de la Peña plus forwards Alen Boksic and Christian Vieri (out until January).

Milan were missing defender Paolo Maldini plus midfielders Demetrio Albertini and Leonardo.

Lazio started off on the attack but were almost immediately punished on the break. In the 6th minute Fernando Couto was left alone to challenge Oliver Bierhoff and the German let loose a left foot which curled in on the far post, 0-1. A great strike.

Having gone in front early Milan changed their 3-4-3 into a more conservative 4-4-2.

Bierhoff however had another attempt that was not far off target.

Lazio then stepped up their pressure and Milan were in difficulty. The Rossoneri had to concede several bookings to stop Lazio's attacks. Christian Ziege, Ibrahim Ba, Bierhoff and Billy Costacurta all received yellows and the Italian defender probably deserved another.

In the 28th minute Lazio equalised. Sinisa Mihajlovic came up with the speciality of the house with a wonderful freekick. The Serb, from near the right vertex of the area, curled the ball into the far top left hand corner, 1-1. A brilliant goal.

Lazio continued to have the upper hand but several flowing moves especially between Roberto Mancini and Marcelo Salas were blocked at the last moment. Halftime 1-1.

For the second half the visitors replaced Bierhoff with Maurizio Ganz.

Both sides had penalty appeals early on. Milan claimed Beppe Favalli tripped Zvonimir Boban while Lazio complained about a similar challenge by Bruno N' Gotty on Sérgio Conceição. The clearest was the last when Ganz clumsily fouled Salas but Trentalange was not in a mood for giving penalties tonight.

Lazio continued to attack more and Pavel Nedved twice had powerful efforts go wide by a whisker.

Milan still threatened occasionally as Domenico Morfeo clipped the top of the crossbar with a nice freekick.

In the 69th minute Lazio took off Dejan Stankovic and introduced Giorgio Venturin.

A minute later Lazio scored. Conceição did well on the right side of the area and squared to Mancini in the middle and the former Sampdoria man beat Sebastiano Rossi with a low strike, 2-1.

Lazio then replaced Beppe Favalli with Paolo Negro while in the 78th minute Milan put on Thomas Helveg for Ibrahim Ba and in the 81st Andrés Guly for Morfeo.

Lazio were not content with the win and wanted a bigger cushion to take up north.

Marcelo Salas almost got a third but Rossi did well to dive to his left and parry.

The Chilean was then put out of action by Roberto Ayala in a challenge which could even have been punished with a penalty but Trentalange was coherent if nothing else. "El Matador" was replaced by midfielder Roberto Baronio.

In the second minute of added time Billy Costacurta was finally sent off, possibly about 72 minutes too late. He got a second yellow for intentionally blocking Conceição from bursting towards goal.

With an opposing defender less Lazio then managed to get the precious third goal. In the fifth and last minute of injury time Mihajlovic swirled in a corner which Mancini got to first and headed past Rossi, 3-1.

Lazio had repeated the fantastic cup winning score of April 29 which had won them the previous year's Coppa Italia. Even the goalscoring sequence was the same with Milan going in front and then suffering Lazio's comeback.

A good result to take to San Siro. After a difficult first half hour Lazio had been the better team.

More good news came from the fact that Milan players Costacurta, Ba and Bierhoff would all miss the return game through suspension.

The return game would be in the Lombard capital on November 11.

Who played for Lazio

Marchegiani, Pancaro, Fernando Couto, Mihajlovic, Favalli (72' Negro), Sérgio Conceição, Stankovic (69' Venturin), Almeyda, Nedved, Salas (89' Baronio), Mancini