May 28, 1995: Foggia Lazio 0-1

Simon Basten
May 28
6 min read

Zeman condemns Foggia to Serie B

Lazio win thanks to Signori and Foggia are relegated

Also on this day:

May 28, 2023, Lazio Cremonese 3-2. Lazio self-inflict a dramatic game on themselves but ultimately win on a day of celebrations for the May 26 tenth anniversary and Radu’s last match at the Olimpico.
May 28, 1950, Lazio Venezia 2-0. A Puccinelli double secures Lazio win.

The season so far

At the end of the 1993-94 season Sergio Cragnotti surprised everybody by giving the Lazio managerial job to Zdenek Zeman. The Czech coach had impressed the world with his incredible tactical organisation at Foggia. Two of his former players had been signed by Lazio during the summer: Roberto Rambaudi and Jose Chamot. They joined another former Foggia star Beppe Signori. Arriving were also Giorgio Venturin (Torino), Ivano Della Morte (Monza) and Daniele Adani (Modena). Leaving Lazio were Luigi Corino (Brescia), Luca Luzardi (Napoli), Dario Marcolin (Genoa on loan) and Claudio Sclosa (Cremonese, loan), all players that were considered unsuitable for Zeman’s style of play.

Dino Zoff, who had bored everybody to tears in recent years, was promoted to club President. In this way Cragnotti did not lose the charisma of the former World Champion, very important particularly for PR reasons.

In Coppa Italia, Lazio passed the first two rounds, with some difficulty in the second against Piacenza. In the quarterfinals they beat Napoli 3-1 on aggregate and faced Juventus in the semis. After losing the first leg at home 1-0, they were 1-0 down also in the second and in ten men, but they managed to equalise and almost made it to the final, but the woodwork denied the Biancocelesti and in the end a Roberto Baggio penalty handed the final to Juventus.

In the UEFA Cup, Lazio had some trouble scoring away from home. The Biancocelesti passed the first round comfortably but had to wait to the last dying seconds before getting the better of Trelleborgs FF from Sweden in the second round. In the third, against Trabzonspor, the first leg was in Turkey and Lazio managed to score their first two away goals and reached the quarterfinals winning the home leg too. The Biancocelesti were then paired with Borussia Dortmund of former player Karl-Heinz Riedle. The first leg saw Lazio win 1-0 thanks to an own goal. Dortmund won the return match 2-0 with a non-existent penalty at the beginning of the game and a Riedle goal two minutes from time. Lazio were unlucky with Signori out due to injury and a referee who had clear problems with his eyesight (incredible penalty not given to the Biancocelesti).

After the first half of the season Lazio were third, four points behind Parma and five from leaders Juventus. The second part had started badly with two consecutive defeats and in the next eight games they had lost another three times. They had fallen to fifth place, six points from Parma, second. But in the next five matches they had beaten Roma, Juventus and Inter and were now joint third with Milan just three points behind Parma, second. Juventus had already won the scudetto.

Foggia needed to win today to continue to have a slim chance of avoiding relegation, but Lazio were not going to do anyone any favours.

The match: Sunday, May 28, 1995, Stadio Pino Zaccheria, Foggia

Just a couple of hours before the game, the team were informed of the death of Mario Di Cola, a former Lazio counsellor in the 1970s. He was in Foggia ready to watch the match but he died of a heart attack in a hotel room where the players were staying.

The team was in shock and it looked like they were not particularly interested in the game. Foggia on the other hand were in a desperate situation. They needed to win in order to keep their slender hopes of staying in Serie A.

The Biancocelesti laid in waiting apart from an Alen Boksic shot which went wide in the 3rd minute. Foggia went close to scoring in the 9th minute when Luca Marchegiani fumbled on a Massimiliano Giacobbo free kick. The ball hit the woodwork and went back into the keeper’s hands.

In the 36th minute Lazio scored. Free kick outside the penalty box, massive whack from Beppe Signori, nothing Franco Mancini could do.

In the second half, Foggia could have equalised but Mauro Bressan hit the woodwork again in the 47th minute and Massimiliano Capellini was twice in front of Marchegiani in the 52nd and 57th minute but both times he squandered the massive chances. With Igor Kolyvanov trying to save the game by himself and the two forwards, Paolo Mandelli and Cappellini, innocuous, the end of the Foggia miracle was a natural consequence.

Lazio now had the chance to reach second place in the last match of the season.

Who played for Foggia

F. Mancini, Padalino, Bianchini, Nicoli (70' Parisi), Giacobbo, Caini, Mandelli, Bressan, Cappellini, De Vincenzo (83' Baiocchi), Kolyvanov

Substitutes: Brunner, Di Bari, Marazzina

Manager: Catuzzi

Who played for Lazio

Marchegiani, Nesta, Favalli, Di Matteo, Negro, Bergodi, Rambaudi (63’ Venturin), Fuser (63’ Casiraghi), Boksic, Winter, Signori

Substitutes: Orsi, Bonomi, Colucci

Manager: Zeman

Referee: Quartuccio

Goal: 36’ Signori

What happened next

Lazio finished 2nd. A week later they beat Brescia 1-0 at home while Parma lost 0-1 in Naples.

Lazio’s main ambition was a place in Europe in some way or form and to play well. They managed to keep a high standard of play – a couple of 5-1s (against Napoli and Padova), a 7-1 win at home against Foggia, 8-2 win against Fiorentina, a 3-0 away win against Juventus and the 2-0 win over that other team from Rome – despite an occasional pause (losing the derby for example). The team scored lots of goals, not surprising when one has Alen Boksic, Pierluigi Casiraghi and Beppe Signori in the squad. One could see that the Biancocelesti had enormous potential and they did reach second place behind Juventus and if it were not for the occasional defensive blackouts, they perhaps could have done even better.

Luca Marchegiani and Paolo Negro were the players with most appearances in the season (48, Casiraghi was the one with most matches in Serie A) and Signori the highest scorer (17 in Serie A and 21 in total).

Sadly, this was the last season at Lazio for Paul Gascoigne. He came back after the terrible injury of 1994 and played 4 matches. But Zeman’s type of game was too limiting for him so he was sold to Rangers during the summer.

Let’s talk about Paolo Mandelli

Paolo Mandelli was born in Milan on December 4, 1967.

He started playing football in the youth sector of Inter and debuted in the Serie A on March 16, 1986, in Napoli-Inter. After a couple of games in Coppa Italia in 1986 he was loaned to Lazio. The Biancocelesti had promotion ambitions but were unjustly given a 9-point docking for the alleged involvement in the 1986 match fixing scandal of one of their players, Claudio Vinazzani. Despite the handicap, Mandelli stayed on.

It was a dramatic season as Lazio managed to avoid relegation with a Giuliano Fiorini goal with seven minutes left in the last game of the season. This win took the Biancocelesti to a playoff and a Fabio Poli goal secured another year in Serie B.

Paolo Mandelli had a very positive year with Lazio with 39 total appearances and six goals. But he went back to Inter at the end of the season. The Neroazzurri then sold him to Sambenedettese. Between 1987 and 1990 he changed teams three times: after San Benedetto del Tronto he went to Messina and Reggiana. In 1990 he signed for Monza where he stayed for 2 years before moving to Foggia. He was chosen personally by Zdenek Zeman for his famous 4-3-3 formation At Foggia he stayed four years with 92 league appearances and 7 goals.

In 1996 he moved to Modena and stayed five seasons with 139 appearances and 13 goals. His last two years of active football were with Sassuolo.

Mandelli also has two caps with the Serie B Under 21.

Once he stopped playing, Mandelli became a manager. He managed the Sassuolo Primavera team from 2003 to 2017 winning a Viareggio tournament in 2017. During his stint at Sassuolo he also managed the first team a few times: in 2011, substituting Angelo Gregucci for the last three games and in 2014 when he coached the team after Eusebio Di Francesco was fired and the club were deciding who to substitute him with. In 2017 he left the Primavera and took over the Under 16s.

Between 2018 and 2021 he was manager of the Chievo Verona Primavera team and in the 2021-22 season the Spal under 18s. He is currently head coach of the Modena Primavera team.

Paolo Mandelli stayed just a year in Rome but he left a lasting mark. Partnering with Giuliano Fiorini in attack he gave a good contribution to the Lazio cause and will always be remembered to for being part of the heroic -9 squad.