October 18, 1998: Inter Lazio 3-5
- Lazio Stories
- Oct 18, 2024
- 10 min read
Updated: Oct 18
Lazio come alive
Spectacular Lazio annihilate Inter at San Siro
Also on this day:
The season so far
In the previous year Lazio had won the Coppa Italia, first silverware since 1974, reached the final of the UEFA Cup and fought for the title for a few months, only to collapse towards the end.
The summer of 1998 was an interesting transfer window. Cragnotti wanted to add greater quality to the squad but also wanted to cash in on players that after the Coppa Italia win and the extraordinary previous season would now be worth a lot more. Those who left were Diego Fuser to Parma, José Chamot and Valdimir Jugovic to Atletico Madrid, Gigi 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 regarding quality and fire power.
In late August Lazio won the Super Coppa in Turin against Juventus. A good start to the season but in the beginning the Biancocelesti struggled. They were not playing well and also had problems in the opening rounds of the Cup Winners Cup and Coppa Italia.
The match: Sunday, October 18, 1998, Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan
A full house tonight at "La Scala del Calcio", 70,000 expecting an entertaining game.
Lazio were without Alessandro Nesta, Alen Boksic, Dejan Stankovic, Ivan De la Peña and Christian Vieri. Inter were without Ronaldo and Roberto Baggio.
The game came to life immediately. After only one minute on the clock, Sinisa Mihajlovic curled a free kick into a crowded area where Marcelo Salas was clever to elude his marker Beppe Bergomi and flicked the ball in from close range. Inter 0 Lazio 1. A perfect start for Lazio.
Inter reacted with a thundering volley by Francesco Moriero from the right vertex of the area but Luca Marchegiani parried it well.
In the 13th minute came a controversial episode. Pavel Nedved freed Salas down the left, the Chilean tried to dribble his way into the area but was brutally tackled by Ciccio Colonnese. It was a dangerous tackle in which he hit Salas' ankle and probably then the ball too. For the referee it was just a corner but the "Matador" hobbled off injured. A big blow to Lazio. Guerino Gottardi came on.
Inter pushed forward. Ivan Zamorano was just anticipated by Marchegiani who dived low before the Chilean could shoot. In the 22nd minute Inter equalised. Bergomi sent a long ball out of defence and it was controlled by Zamorano on the right edge of the area, he tapped it back to Aron Winter who sent a cracking shot into the top left-hand corner. A fantastic goal. Inter 1 Lazio 1.
It was an open game. Zamorano's first touch let him down when he would have had only the keeper to beat. In the 30th minute Mihajlovic hit the base of the post on a freekick and on the rebound from outside the box Matías Almeyda hammered a left foot which forced Gianluca Pagliuca to dive to his right and parry into corner.
Lazio insisted and in the 34th minute Mihajlovic tried his luck on a freekick from an impossible angle near the right corner flag and Pagliuca saved low on the front post with some difficulty. On the subsequent corner Lazio scored. The Serb curled the ball into the front post where Sergio Conceição was the quickest and headed past Pagliuca. Inter 1 Lazio 2.
In the 40th minute Lazio made it three. Beppe Favalli, from way inside his own half, struck a perfect long ball over the Inter defence where Roberto Mancini, beating the offside trap, was suddenly unmarked in front of Pagliuca, he let it bounce twice and then belted it into the back of the net. Inter 1 Lazio 3.
Things got worse for the hosts just before halftime when Diego Simeone was sent off. On an aerial challenge with Fernando Couto "El Cholo", he seemed to use his elbow and then stepped on the Portuguese when he was down. So, at the break Inter 1 Lazio 3 and the Nerazzurri in ten men.
After three minutes of the second half Lazio lost their other striker to injury too. Mancini was forced off and replaced by midfielder Roberto Baronio. Lazio were now playing with Pavel Nedved and Gottardi up front.
They still scored again soon. In the 53rd minute Nedved did well on the left and put in a low cross, Baronio dummied cleverly and in came Conceição who controlled the ball and beat Pagliuca with a left foot on the far post. Inter 1 Lazio 4.
Inter at this point put another striker on, Nicola Ventola, for a midfielder Moriero. The Apulian striker was immediately dangerous as he weaved his way into Lazio's area but his low strike was saved on the front post by Marchegiani. Zamorano then had a threatening header but it was tipped over the bar by Marchegiani.
In the 64th minute, future Lazio, Ousmane Dabo came off for Zé Elias and a few minutes later Lazio defender Giovanni Lopez replaced Couto.
Lazio threatened again with a long range Nedved effort palmed over the bar by Pagliuca and then scored again. In the 74th minute Baronio crossed in low from the right and Nedved unmarked smashed in a close range left foot in the top left corner. Inter 1 Lazio 5. A score line of epic proportions, so much so that a large number of home fans decided they had seen enough and left.
There was more action left however. In the 77th minute Inter pulled a goal back. Yuri Djorkaeff won a tackle at the entrance to the area and the ball reached Ventola who hit it first time, surprising Marchegiani with a medium height shot to his right. Inter 2 Lazio 5.
Before the end there was still time for Nedved to get sent off for retaliating to a foul and then in the 96th minute for Inter to make the score more respectable. Ventola again was quickest to a ball over the Lazio defence in the area and scored from close range. Inter 3 Lazio 5. There was no more time, an epic win for Lazio.
A well-deserved win for the Biancocelesti. At one point they had been devastating and humiliated Inter. The final score line should not deceive, once Lazio scored their second, the result was never in doubt.
Despite playing large parts of the game with only one or no striker at all, Lazio's attacking moves had been superb.
Lazio were now 6th, on 9 points (with Milan and Parma) but only one behind Inter, Roma and Juventus on 10 and two behind leaders Fiorentina on 12. One worry however was the growing number of injuries.
Inter had missed the chance to go top as leaders Fiorentina had lost 1-2 away to Roma.
Who played for Inter
Pagliuca, Silvestre, Bergomi, Colonnese, Moriero (54' Ventola), Winter, Dabo (64' Zé Elias), Simeone, Zanetti, Djorkaeff, Zamorano
Substitutes: Mazzantini, Paulo Sousa, Galante, Pirlo, Cauet
Manager: Simoni
Who played for Lazio
Marchegiani, Pancaro, F. Couto (68' G. Lopez), Mihajlovic, Favalli, Conceição, Venturin, Almeyda, Nedved, Salas (15' Gottardi), Mancini (48' Baronio)
Manager: Eriksson
Referee: Boggi
Goals: 1' Salas, 22' Winter, 36' Conceição, 40' Mancini, 53' Conceição, 74' Nedved, 77' Ventola, 96' Ventola
Red cards: Simeone, Nedved
What happened next
Had Lazio recovered from the early difficulties? No. In the next six games they won just one and drew the derby 3-3 after they had been ahead 3-1. Before the game against Juventus in Turin they were just tenth. But then everything changed. They won 9 consecutive games, Vieri and Nesta returned and Lazio gradually began to be in contention for the scudetto. At the end of the first half of the season they were second with Parma, two points behind Fiorentina. But they had beaten both teams. The consecutive wins came to an end with a goalless draw at Cagliari, but Lazio had caught up with Fiorentina and in the next game, by beating Inter, took a solitary lead and then pulled away.
By the 26th game of the season they had a five-point advantage over Fiorentina while Milan were seven points behind. They had three home games: Milan, Roma and Juventus. Lazio scored immediately in the game against Milan but it was disallowed for a very dubious offside. At this point the Biancocelesti were content with controlling the game and the Rossoneri made sure it went that way too. But they lost the derby as well as the game against Juventus and Milan were now only one point behind.
At this point there was a battle played on and off the pitch. The teams won three consecutive games. In the penultimate match in Florence, the Biancocelesti were held to a draw and denied a clear penalty by a distracted referee. Milan won, overtook them, and maintained the lead in the last game. A huge disappointment.
But Lazio did win the last Cup Winners Cup. After having struggled in the first two rounds, they slaughtered Panionios in the quarters and reached the final thanks to a Boksic goal away against Lokomotiv Moscow in the semis. In the final in Birmingham against Real Mallorca they scored first with Vieri but the advantage did not last long. In the second half a fantastic Nedved goal gave the club their first International silverware.
In Coppa Italia Lazio were eliminated by Inter in the quarter finals.
The player with most appearances this season was Marchegiani (48) and top scorer was Salas with 24 goals.
Let's talk about Pavel Nedved
Pavel Nedved was one of the greatest players ever to have worn the Lazio jersey. A fighter who played mainly on the left side from midfield up, but he could use both feet indifferently.
Born in Cheb on August 30 1972, he started playing football at a very young age in the Tatran Skalna youth team, to then move first to RH Cheb and then Skoda Plzen, where he played from 1986 to 1990.
In 1991 he turned professional and played for Dukla Prague for a year and then moved to Sparta Prague. He was one of the best players in Euro 1996 where the Czech Republic reached the final.
Zdenek Zeman had asked President Sergio Cragnotti to sign Nedved back in 1995 when Pavel was Mr. Nobody but Cragnotti ignored him. He did not a year later and in 1996 Nedved joined Lazio.
It looked like a marriage made in heaven. Lazio needed a player on the left of Zeman’s midfield and with Zeman being Czech, Nedved would easily adapt to Italian football. He did not. It actually took him a while to adapt to the different culture and different way of working. Then Zeman got fired and was replaced by Dino Zoff half way through the season. Under Zoff the team improved and so did Pavel.
Nedved’s potential exploded under Sven Goran Eriksson and he became one of the best midfield players in Europe. He was one of the protagonists of that amazing team full of champions.
With Lazio he won a scudetto, the Coppa Italia twice, the Super Coppa twice, the UEFA Cup Winners Cup (scoring the winning goal in the final) and the UEFA Super Cup.
He played 207 games for Lazio (138 in Serie A, 22 in Coppa Italia, 30 in Champions League, 14 in the UEFA Cup, 2 in Super Coppa and 1 in the UEFA Super Cup) and scored 51 goals (33 in Serie A, 5 in Coppa Italia, 8 in Champions League, 4 in UEFA Cup and one in the Supercoppa).
In 2001, with Lazio in financial difficulty, Cragnotti sold Nedved to Juventus. But Pavel refused to sign for the Bianconeri, he wanted to stay with Lazio. Cragnotti shredded the signed papers and offered a contract extension to the Czech, who accepted. Everybody happy. But Luciano Moggi, Director General of the Bianconeri, had not thrown the contract away. He flew to Rome on a private plane and invited Nedved and his wife to go to Turin. It was difficult to say no to Moggi and Nedved signed the contract with Juventus. Goodbye Lazio.
Just like he did with Lazio, he became a fundamental player for Juventus staying for eight years, winning the scudetto twice and the Supercoppa twice. He won the Ballon D’Or in 2003. Once he stopped playing he became a member of the Juventus Board of Directors in 2010 and Vice President in 2015. He stayed at Juve until 2022 when the entire board of directors resigned. In January 2025 he became sporting director for Al-Shabab in the Saudi League but only stayed until the summer when he became general director of the Czech national team and under-21s.
He played 91 games for the Czech Republic and scored 18 goals. He participated in Euro 1996, Euro 2000, Euro 2004 and the World Cup of 2006.
When he was playing for Lazio, he was one of the most loved players but once he moved to Juve, the love turned first to hate and later to complete indifference. Mind you it is not surprising. Pavel has spoken very little about his days at Lazio since he moved to Turin.
Lazio Career
Sources
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