March 3, 2002: Lazio Venezia 4-2

Lazio Stories
5 hours ago
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El Valdanito indicates the way to Europe

A Crespo hat-trick puts the Aquilotti within striking distance of a UEFA slot

The season so far

The previous season had seen title winning Sven-Goran Eriksson leaving the club and the return of Dino Zoff. Lazio had fought for the title but eventually just lost out to city rivals Roma. A 3rd place finish did however give them a Champions League participation.

Lazio's main investments this year were defender Jaap Stam (Manchester United) and midfielder Gaizka Mendieta (Valencia). Mendieta in particular was considered a major swoop after his performances in the Champions League for Valencia. In had also come midfielders Giuliano Giannichedda and Stefano Fiore (both from Udinese), Fabio Liverani (Perugia), Brazilian César (São Caetano), Ivan de la Peña (back from loan periods after a disappointing time at Lazio two years earlier) and Serb forward Darko Kovacevic (Juventus).

Lazio had however lost scudetto legends Pavel Nedved (Juventus), the 'Matador' Marcelo Salas (Juventus) and Juan Sebastian Veron (Manchester United) plus Fabrizio Ravanelli (Derby County) and Roberto Baronio (Fiorentina).

The season had started with three lacklustre draws which led the club to substitute manager Dino Zoff with Alberto Zaccheroni. The Biancocelesti had not really improved initially with 1 win, 2 draws and 3 defeats (including derby 0-2) in the first 6 games. Then came five consecutive wins (including Juventus 1-0) but it did not last and since then the Biancocelesti had won 2 (including recent 1-0 with Atalanta), drawn 3 and lost 4. Lazio were currently 7th on 33 points, five behind Milan in the last European UEFA slot.

In the Champions League Lazio had gone through the qualifying round by beating FC København 5-3 on aggregate in August. The Biancocelesti had then crashed out in the first group phase with two wins and four defeats: Galatasaray (0-1, 1-0), PSV Eindhoven (0-1, 2-1) and Nantes (1-3, 0-1).

In Coppa Italia, Lazio had played in the last 16 against Siena winning 3-1 on aggregate but then been eliminated by Milan 3-5 on aggregate in the quarters.

Venezia were newly promoted. In 2000-01 they had finished 4th in Serie B under Cesare Prandelli. The top scorer was Arturo Di Napoli with 16 league goals.

This season Prandelli was initially confirmed but had then been sacked after six games (six defeats). Sergio Buso was then on the bench for one game (Milan 1-1 away) and from the 8th fixture Alfredo Magni took over (W 3, D 5, L 9).

The main new players this season were; goalkeeper Generoso Rossi (Bari), defender Mario Cvitanović (Verona), midfielders Daniel Andersson (Bari), Ivone De Franceschi (Salernitana - back from loan), Mauro Bressan (Fiorentina), Ighli Vannucchi (Salernitana), Pablo Garcia (Milan), Stefano Morrone (Piacenza), Mario Santana (in January - San Lorenzo) plus forwards Federico Magallanes (Racing Santander) and Igor Budan (Bellinzona - back from loan).

Leaving the lagoon were defenders Paolo Foglio (Chievo), and Gianluca Luppi (Napoli), midfielders Mariano Sotgia (Padova) and Francesco Pedone (Como) plus forward Fabio Bazzani (Perugia-on loan).

Venezia were currently bottom of the table on 15 points. The Lagunari had won 3, drawn 6 (including Milan 1-1 away and Lazio 0-0 at home) and lost 15 (including recent 1-4 to Milan at home).

In the Coppa Italia the Winged Lions had gone out in the first group phase after 1 win (Ascoli 2-0 at home) and 2 draws (Cosenza and Como both 1-1 away).

Lazio had to win today to have any chance of catching up with the Euro zone.

The match: Sunday, March 3, 2002, Stadio Olimpico, Rome

There were about 40,000 fans at the Olimpico on a grey but dry afternoon.

Lazio had no real absences while Venezia played Brazilian defender Fábio Bilica in place of Simone Pavan.

The first twenty minutes were played mainly in midfield. Lazio attacked more but only had a couple of attempts off target.

In the 20th minute Venezia almost scored when Uruguayan forward Federico Magallanes set up Mauro Bressan on the right inside the area, his low strike was good but hit the side netting only giving the optical illusion of a goal.

In the 24th minute Lazio went in front. Stefano Fiore did well on the right and crossed into the middle where Hernan Crespo outjumped his markers and headed past Rossi, 1-0

Lazio then controlled the proceedings without risking anything and doubled their lead just before halftime. It was not too different from the first goal except this time Fiore floated in a freekick and it was Beppe Pancaro who headed in, 46th minute and 2-0.

There was still time for another goal before the break as in the 48th minute Giuliano Giannichedda's foot was touched from behind just as he was about to shoot and the referee awarded a penalty. Crespo blasted a mid-height central shot to make it 3-0.

There were no changes during the interval but in the 52nd minute Ciccio Colonnese was forced off injured after a filthy late tackle by Stefano Bettarini. His place was taken by Dino Baggio.

In the 56th minute Lazio almost closed the game but Simone Inzaghi one-on-one with the keeper was denied by a brilliant save.

Three minutes later the visitors brought on forward Arturo Di Napoli and midfielder Ighli Vannucchi and took off Magallanes and Bressan

In the 64th minute Lazio replaced "Inzaghino" with Claudio Lopez.

In the 68th minute the Arancioneroverdi pulled a goal back. On a freekick Bettarini curled his shot over the wall and into the top hand corner to Angelo Peruzzi's left, 3-1.

It seemed like a classic consolation goal but five minutes later the Venetians grabbed another. In the 73rd minute they had a central indirect freekick from just inside the box, Di Napoli took it and hit the wall but then it spun up to Maniero who was quick to head it in. A slightly lucky goal but suddenly game on, 3-2.

Game on but for only about two minutes as in the 75th minute "El Valdanito" got his hat-trick. After a defensive hesitation Crespo picked up the ball outside the area on the left, he went past two defenders and from just inside the box let loose a perfect low strike towards the far post, 4-2. A superb goal.

Both sides made one more substitution each; in the 78th minute Fabian Valtolina came on for Ivone De Franceschi and in the 81st Lucas Castroman replaced Dejan Stankovic.

Lazio had a reassuring two-goal lead but towards the end the Lagunari had a massive triple chance to still give themselves some hope. Peruzzi dived to his right and parried a Valtolina shot, the ball fell to Di Napoli who hammered it onto the crossbar and then on the second rebound Maniero fired it over. Final score Lazio 4 Venezia 2.

No nervous last minutes for Lazio who earned a good three points for their European hopes. Lazio had seemed home and dry at halftime before letting their guard down and conceding two goals albeit from freekicks. Luckily for the Biancocelesti Crespo's almost immediate response had saved them from any further worries.

Lazio were on 36 points, still 7th but now only two points behind 6th placed Milan who had lost the derby.

Venezia looked doomed on 15 points and now thirteen from safety (Piacenza on 28).

Next up for Lazio was the derby.

Who played for Lazio

Peruzzi, Colonnese (52' D.Baggio), Nesta, F.Couto, Pancaro, Poborsky, Giannichedda, Fiore, Stankovic (81' Castroman), Crespo, S.Inzaghi (64' C.Lopez)

Substitutes: Concetti, Mihajlovic, Liverani, Mendieta

Manager: Zaccheroni

Who played for Venezia

Rossi, Conteh, Bilica, Viali, Bettarini, Bressan (59' Vannucchi), Andersson, Marasco, De Franceschi (78' Valtolina), Maniero, Magallanes (59' Di Napoli)

Substitutes: Brivio, Balleello, Cvitanovic, Lai

Manager: Magni

Referee: Morganti

Goals: 24' Crespo, 46' Pancaro, 48' Crespo (pen), 68' Bettarini, 73' Maniero, 75' Crespo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVZLR5Ue39U

What happened next

Lazio then collapsed in the derby losing 1-5 with some awful Zaccheroni choices. They then picked themselves up and won 5, drew 2 (including Juventus 1-1 away) and lost 1. They finished 6th and therefore salvaged a disappointing season by qualifying for the UEFA Cup. Lazio's top scorer was Hernan Crespo with 20 goals (13 in A).

They ended with a controversial victory over Inter on the now famous May 5th. This last game saw Inter needing a win to be sure of the scudetto. There was also the chance of Roma snatching the championship had Inter and Juve failed to win and the Giallorossi did. There was therefore a lot of talk of Lazio throwing the game to avoid the “unmentionables” glory.

Many Lazio fans were initially blatantly supporting Inter but the risk was soon out of the question with Juve taking an early double lead away at Udinese. Inter still had their fate in their own hands but inexplicably collapsed at the Olimpico against opposition who didn't exactly play as if their life depended on it. Inter may have assumed it was a done deal but Karel Poborsky's lack of understanding of the city rivalry dynamics, and hence fierce determination, together with Inter's lacklustre performance, produced one of the few championship-deciding last match of the season shock results in recent history. Another one obviously being Juventus getting washed away in Perugia two years earlier, handing the scudetto to Lazio in an even more dramatic fashion.

Fortunately for the following season Roberto Mancini was on his way back to Lazio.

Venezia ended up bottom and relegated. In the next games they drew 3 (including Roma 2-2 at home) and lost 6. The top scorer was Pippo Maniero with 19 goals (18 in A). Venezia would not be back in Serie A until 2021-22 and 2024-25 but failed to survive and are currently in Serie B.

With Juventus champions for the 26th time, the verdicts down below were Venezia to travel with Lecce, Fiorentina and Verona down to Serie B.

Let's talk about Hernan Crespo

Hernan Crespo was potentially one of the best centre forwards Lazio has ever had. Powerful, acrobatic, fast, he had a lot to offer but in my humble opinion came up short in his time at Lazio.

Born in Florida, Argentina on July 5, 1975, he started his career in the youth teams of River Plate. He turned professional with the Argentine team and played until 1996, winning two Apertura titles. He was nicknamed "valdanito" after legendary Argentine striker Jorge Valdano (for their similar looks and goal scoring abilities).

In the summer of 1996 he moved to Parma where he stayed for four years proving all of his potential. By 2000 he and Gabrel Batistuta were considered two of the best centre forwards in the world. The latter would go on to play the last couple of years of his career with the other team from Rome, whereas Sergio Cragnotti, following Lazio’s scudetto, would spend an enormous amount of money to get Crespo: €55 million (which included cash plus Matias Almeyda and Sergio Conceicao) which just for a few days was the record signing of all time in world football, that until Luis Figo joined Real Madrid.

His first official match was the Supercoppa Final against Inter. He did not score but the attacking duo Claudio Lopez-Crespo looked devastating and Lazio triumphed 4-3, winning the cup.

The first year was a good one, in the end. He did not perform well under Sven Goran Eriksson and an injury certainly did not help. Even while off form, he was still able to create goal scoring chances but missed most of them. When he was in form however, he was devastating. As soon as Dino Zoff started managing the team, Crespo started to score regularly and he was one of the main stars of the season. He will go on to win the Italian golden boot with 26 goals in 36 games.

As mentioned earlier, his second year was not so good, not only for him personally, but also for the team. Lazio struggled to find a decent game organisation and Crespo scored “only” 13 goals.

The return of Roberto Mancini, this time as manager, created lots of hopes in the Lazio fans for the 2002-03 season. But Sergio Cragnotti was having considerable financial difficulties and someone had to be sold. The first player everybody had their eyes on was obviously Alessandro Nesta. Cragnotti hoped that Milan, Inter and Juventus would fight to the end to get the greatest defender of all time and that consequently the price would be really high. Instead there was a secret pact between them to get the player for a much lower price than his real value. All three clubs waited until the very last moments of the transfer window to force Lazio to agree on a low price. Milan clinched the deal and Cragnotti was forced to accept just €31 million. At this point a second player had to go and that would be Hernan Crespo who was sold to Inter for €36 million to replace Ronaldo who had moved on to Real Madrid.

He made a good contribution to Inter, especially in Champions League, and Chelsea set his eyes on him. His move to the UK was not a positive one due to continuous injuries. In 2004 he moved to AC Milan on loan where he performed well and his legacy there could have been even better had Milan held on to the 3-0 lead, with two of his goals, against Liverpool in the Champions League final.

Back at Chelsea in 2005, he then returned to Inter for three years in 2006. His final years were with Genoa and Parma.

During his career he won a number of trophies; three scudettos with Inter, a premier league with Chelsea, two Apertura’s with River Plate, 5 Italian Supper Coppa's (two with Inter and one each with Lazio, Parma and Milan), a Charity Shield with Chelsea and a Copa Libertadores with River Plate.

He played 73 games for Lazio: 54 in Serie A (39 goals), 5 in Coppa Italia (4 goals), 13 in Champions League (5 goals) and one Supercoppa Final.

He was a very important player for the national team and played for Argentina in three World Cups: 1998, 2002 (scoring one goal against Sweden) and 2006 (three goals). He also played in the 2007 Copa America. He played a total of 64 games for his country and scored 34 goals. He also won a silver medal at the Atlanta Olympic Games of 1996.

Once he stopped playing he became manager. He started with the Parma Primavera in 2014 and a year later was head coach for Modena in Serie B. With the team fifth from bottom he was sacked in March 2016 and substituted by Cristiano Bergodi who was unable to avoid relegation.

In December 2018 he became manager at Banfield but was sacked a year later. In January 2020 he signed for Defensa y Justicia but again lasted just a year. After a year at San Paolo where he won a Campeonato Paulista, in 2022 he became head coach for Al-Duhail in Qatar where in his first season he won the treble, league, national cup and super cup, but in the beginning of his second he was sacked in October. A month later he became head coach for Al-Ain in the UAE. The club arrived third in the league and won the AFC Champions League. He was sacked in his second season. In June 2025 he went back to San Paolo.

Lazio Career

Season	Total games (goals)	Serie A	Coppa Italia	Champions League	Super Coppa
2000-01	40 (28)	32 (26)	1	6 (2)	1
2001-02	33 (20)	22 (13)	4 (4)	7 (3)	-
Totals	73 (48)	54 (39)	5 (4)	13 (5)	1