March 18, 1999: Lazio Panionios NFC 3-0, Cup Winners Cup
- Simon Basten
- Mar 18
- 6 min read
Easy win
Lazio complete their demolition of Panionios with goals from Nedved, Stankovic and de la Peña
The season so far
The summer of 1998 was an interesting transfer window. President Sergio Cragnotti wanted to add greater quality to the squad but also wanted to cash in on players that after the Coppa Italia win the extraordinary previous season would now be worth a lot more. Those who left were Diego Fuser (Parma), José Chamot and Vladimir Jugovic to Atletico Madrid, Pierluigi Casiraghi to Chelsea and Beppe Signori, on return from his loan to Sampdoria, to Bologna. In the autumn window more players left: Giovanni Lopez to Napoli, Igor Protti to Reggiana and Roberto Rambaudi to Genoa, plus the loan of Dario Marcolin to Blackburn Rovers.
Who arrived? Marcelo Salas from River Plate, Christian Vieri from Atletico Madrid, Sinisa Mihajlovic from Sampdoria, Fernando Couto and Ivan de la Pena from Barcelona. Enough? No. Sergio Conceição from Porto, Dejan Stankovic from Red Star Belgrade and in the winter session Attilio Lombardo from Crystal Palace.
A decisive upgrade in quality and fire power.
The pre-season was not so great as Lazio lost to Benfica, Deportivo La Coruña and Atlético Madrid. Without Alessandro Nesta, seriously injured during the World Cup and who would return in December, the defence with Mihajlovic and Couto was too slow and not helped by the midfield. The first major test was the Supercoppa played in Turin on August 29. The Biancocelesti managed to win in the last second with a Conceição goal. Pavel Nedved had put them ahead and then in the second half a ridiculous penalty for a non-existent hand ball (the ball hit Lopez on the back) gave Juve the equaliser. This was the first Supercoppa win for the Biancocelesti.
In Serie A Lazio had a slow start also due to long term injuries for Vieri and Nesta but once the two were back in the first eleven things had improved. At the end of the first half of the season they were third with Parma, three points behind leaders Fiorentina. In the 21st fixture the Biancocelesti had reached Fiorentina and from then on, they went off alone. They now had a five-point lead over a trio of teams: Milan, Parma and the Viola.
In Coppa Italia Lazio had been eliminated by Inter in the quarter finals.
In today’s competition, the Cup Winners Cup, Lazio had so far eliminated Lausanne on away goals and Partizan Beograd 3-2. In the first leg of the quarter finals they had hammered Panionios 4-0 and were virtually through to the semis.
The match: Thursday, March 18, 1999, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Sven-Goran Eriksson took the opportunity of using just three first eleven player – Alessandro Nesta, Sinisa Mihajlovic and Pavel Nedved – and giving a rest to most of the others.
It was the Czech who had a first opportunity in the 3rd minute but after a splendid assist from Guerino Gottardi, he took too long for the shot and the Greek defence saved into corner. Mihajlovic took the corner and Dejan Stankovic went for the header, well saved by Fotaq Strakosha, father of Thomas.
In the 7th minute Gottardi was dangerous with a shot from inside the penalty box but Strakosha saved. Then the game got boring. The Biancocelesti did not want to waste too much energy and the Greeks were too weak to propose anything dangerous. In the 40th minute great ball from Nedved on the left towards Gottardi on the right on the edge of the area, he controlled it and passed to Ivan de la Peña who tried a shot but it went wide, just.
In the 51st minute a Gottardi cross was only half cleared by the defence, Stankovic had a chance but he headed the ball wide. A minute later Nedved in the box tried to move past Strakosha but the keeper saved into corner. Lazio continued to have a number of half chances with Nedved, Gottardi and Stankovic often thanks to de la Peña assists. In the 66th minute it was Roberto Baronio with a volley from outside the box who made Strakosha work. Finally, in the 69th minute the Biancocelesti scored. de la Pena from the left, splendid cross into the box, Nedved anticipated Strakosha and it was 1-0.
The Greeks immediately had a chance to equalise as Garry Haylock, probably in off side, found himself face to face with Marco Ballotta, but kicked the ball wide. In the 76th minute Attilio Lombardo sent a great pass to Stankovic who beat Strakosha for the 2-0. The third goal came shortly after. On the counter attack de la Peña to Nedved on the left, cross into the middle and the Spaniard scored his first goal of the season.
Lazio through to the semifinals where they would meet Lokomotiv Moscow.
Who played for Lazio
Ballotta, Lombardo, Nesta, Mihajlovic (71' Crovari), Lombardi, Gottardi, Baronio, Couto, Nedved, Stankovic, de La Peña
Manager: Eriksson
Who played for Panionios
Strakosha, Mitsiopoulos, Zachopoulos (46' Ioannidis), Gazis, Kamitsis, Karasavidis, Tisdale, Bakkerud, Roberts, Sapountzis, Robins (61' Haylock)
Substitutes: Fakis, Bougas, Bergensen, Ioannou, Kafalis
Manager: Whelan
Referee: Heynemann
Goals: 69’ Nedved, 76’ Stankovic, 80’ de la Peña
What happened next
In the 27th fixture of Serie A the gap had risen to six points. They had drawn at home with Milan 0-0, Vieri had scored but the goal had been disallowed due to a dubious off-side.
Lazio lost the next two games against Roma and Juventus and Milan were just a point behind with five games to the end. The Biancocelesti won three but so did Milan. Two games to the end and Lazio went to Florence. The Viola played like it was the Champions League final and went ahead with a Gabriel Batistuta goal. Lazio managed to equalise with Vieri but in the second half Fiorentina were awarded a penalty which they missed and the Biancocelesti were denied one despite an obvious foul on Salas. A final crossbar hit by Vieri sealed the draw. Milan beat Empoli 4-0 and went ahead. The last game at Perugia was a formality for the Rossoneri and they won a scudetto that Lazio had deserved to win.
But there was glory in the Cup Winners Cup. An Alen Boksic goal in Moscow against Lokomotiv in the semis was enough to reach the final which was played in Birmingham against Real Mallorca. Lazio took the lead early with Vieri but the Spaniards soon equalised. In the 81st minute a splendid volley by Nedved gave Lazio their first European trophy and the last ever Cup Winners Cup.
The player with most appearances this season was Luca Marchegiani with 48. Top scorer was Salas with 24 goals in all competitions.
Let’s talk about Stefano Lombardi
Stefano Lombardi was born in Pordenone on July 28, 1976.
He played in the youth teams of Treviso and Milan, then for Treviso in the fifth tier in 1994 winning the League. In 1995 he joined Bologna in Serie B but made just 2 appearances. Back in Treviso in 1996 in Serie C1 he helped the team to promotion playing 22 games and the year after he signed for Genoa in Serie B making 28 appearances with 1 goal. This earned him the big jump to Serie A with Lazio. He made 11 appearances in all competitions and the Biancocelesti came second in Serie A, won the Cup Winners Cup and the Supercoppa.
In 1999 he joined Napoli in Serie B and with 19 appearances helped their promotion to Serie A. In 2000 he signed for Inter but went on loan for four years, one season for Perugia in Serie A with just a few appearances, then Genoa in Serie B and two with Ancona with a promotion to Serie A followed by a relegation but with not a lot of appearances (17 in the league).
He then went on to play for a variety of clubs: Catania and Arezzo in Serie B, Ascoli in Serie A, ending his career with Modena in the second tier, never really making it to be a consistent first eleven player.
Once he stopped playing he became a manager at local level in the Pordenone area.
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