September 12, 2000: Shakhtar Donetsk Lazio 0-3, Champions League
- Simon Basten
- 10 hours ago
- 8 min read
Triumph in Donetsk
Lazio impress in their first Champions League game thanks to goals from Claudio Lopez, Nedved and Inzaghi
Also on this day:
The season so far
The previous season Lazio won their second scudetto in dramatic circumstances. In the final game of the season Juventus had a two-point lead over the Biancocelesti. While Lazio had finished their match at the Olimpico beating Reggina 3-0, between the first and second half of Perugia-Juventus there was a massive storm that drenched the pitch. The second half started an hour later than it should have. Perugia scored with Alessandro Calori and Juve were unable to turn the game around. Lazio had won!!!
In the summer transfer window, President Sergio Cragnotti had decided that Lazio needed a strong centre-forward and a more reliable goalkeeper. In came Hernan Crespo (Parma), one of the best forwards in the world, and Angelo Peruzzi (Inter), one of the best goalkeepers. Other signings included forward Claudio Lopez (Valencia), midfielder Dino Baggio (Parma) and the return of Roberto Baronio from his loan at Reggina. Also bought were midfielders Stefano Fiore and Giuliano Giannichedda from Udinese but they were left to the Bianconeri on loan for an extra year. Leaving Lazio were Alen Boksic (Middlesbrough), Dario Marcolin (Sampdoria), Gianpiero Pinzi (Udinese), Marco Ballotta (Inter), Matias Almeyda and Sergio Conceicao to Parma as partial payment for Crespo.
The problem was that Lazio had been unable to sign a right-winger. Lazio had tried to get Boudewijn Zenden from Barcelona but had failed. This could be a problem at least until January with the winter transfer window. We would see.
The season was going to be a strange one since, due to the Olympic Games in Sydney, the Italian Federation decided to start the Campionato on October 1. However, Champions League would be played in September just the same so the Italian teams involved in the European competitions would play with few games in their legs. Not ideal.
The first game of the season was however the Supercoppa and Lazio beat Inter at the Olimpico 4-3.
Today was the first Champions League game.
The match: Tuesday September 12, 2000, RSC Olympiyskiy Stadium, Donetsk
Shakhtar Donetsk started well backed by a 30,000 crowd. In the 12th minute Angelo Peruzzi was nillisnt in saving a dangerous shot from Aleksei Bakharev. This would be the only shot at goal for the Ukranians in the entire first half. A minute later Claudio Lopez responded with a left footed shot saved by Yuriy Virt. Shakhtar dangerous in the 14th minute with Vitali Abramov whose header went wide. Again Claudio Lopez dangerous with a lob just slightly too high.
Lazio played on the counterattack with long balls from midfield to exploit the speed of El Piojo. And this is exactly what happened in the 27th minute, Pavel Nedved to Claudio Lopez who raced towards the goal in complete solitude, went past the keeper and made it 1-0.
The Biancocelesti continued to be dangerous on the counter attack as the hosts attacked confusedly but it was a bad evening in the office for Simone Inzaghi and an even worse one for the referee Michel Piraux who failed to see a blatant last man foul on Inzaghi by Dainius Gleveckas. Not the first time this ref has had a bad day regarding Lazio.
In the beginning of the second half Shakhtar put their foot on the accelerator and Lazio found it hard to cross the half way line. In the 53rd minute Sinisa Mihajlovic was forced off with a fractured cheekbone and substituted by Fernando Couto. The hosts attacked the Lazio fort and Peruzzi was excellent in blocking all initiatives Then in the 67th minute Beppe Favalli from the left passed into the box and Nedved with a curling shot made it 2-0.
That was the end for Shakhtar and the Biancocelesti made it three in the 78th minute. Dejan Stankovic made a marvellous pass for Nedved cutting the Ukrainian defence in two, ball in the middle for Inzaghi, 3-0.
A great game for Lazio and excellent start to the Champions League campaign.
Who played for Shakhtar Donetsk
Virt, Chmarko, Gleveckas, Shevchuk, Tymoschuk, Popov, Zubov, Bakharev, Abramov (76' Bielik), Atelkin, Vorobyey
Substitutes: Shutkoy, Kryventson, Savu, Gai, Adamov
Manager Prokopenko
Who played for Lazio
Peruzzi, Pancaro, Nesta, Mihajlovic (53’ Couto), Favalli, Stankovic (81’ Lombardo), Veron, Simeone (83’ Sensini), Nedved, Inzaghi, Claudio Lopez
Substitutes: Marchegiani, Colonnese, Gottardi, Ravanelli
Manager: Eriksson
Referee: Piraux (Bel)
Goals: 27’ Claudio Lopez, 67’ Nedved, 78’ Inzaghi
What happened next
Lazio did not start too well and by the end of the year were fourth with 21 points, way off Roma who were leading the Serie A eight points ahead. There had been a lot of problems. This first issue was that Sven-Goran Eriksson had signed a contract with the English FA to manage England starting from the summer of 2001. This meant that it was going to be his last year with Lazio. This created a negative psychological situation in the team, uncertain of what would happen in the future. Secondly, Crespo got injured early on and he was taking his time in getting back into form. Thirdly, the team was badly missing a right-winger since Attilio Lombardo was past his prime and Dejan Stankovic was fulfilling the task rather reluctantly. Fourthly, Claudio Lopez, Lazio’s star summer signing, also got injured early on in the season and would be out for the rest of the year. There was still optimism but in the first game of the new year Lazio lost at home and Eriksson, realising that he might be the problem, resigned. The team was given to Dino Zoff who stepped down as President to become head coach. In January Lazio finally bought Karel Poborsky and Lucas Castroman to fill the void created by selling Conçeicao.
In the campionato once Zoff arrived things improved and Lazio with three games to go were second behind Roma but with a five-point gap. The Giallorossi were tiring but Lazio threw away a game against Inter where they had 100 chances to score their second goal but the Nerazzurri then equalised in injury time. If Lazio had won they would have only been three points behind.
Coming into the final game, Roma were top, Juventus two points behind and Lazio three. In the last game Roma had to face Parma who decided not to play and allowed the Giallorossi to win their third scudetto. At that point the Biancocelesti, who were winning at Lecce, threw in the towel and lost the game.
In the Champions League Lazio managed to go through to the second group phase but were eliminated by Real Madrid and Leeds United. In Coppa Italia, the Biancocelesti were beaten by Udinese in the quarterfinals.
Pavel Nedved was the player with most appearances (46) and Crespo the leading goal scorer (28). The Argentine was also the leading Serie A goal scorer with 26 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 youth team of Tatran Skalna, 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 Supercoppa twice, the UEFA Cup Winners Cup (scoring the winning goal in the final) and the UEFA Super Cup.
He played 208 games for Lazio (138 in Serie A, 23 in Coppa Italia, 30 in Champions League, 14 in the UEFA Cup, 2 in Supercoppa 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 on a private plane to Rome 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 then complete indifference. Mind you it is not surprising. Pavel has spoken very little about his days at Lazio since he moved away.
Lazio Career
Season | Total games (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Cup Winners Cup | UEFA Cup | UEFA Super Cup | Super Coppa |
1996-97 | 38 (10) | 32 (7) | 3 (1) | - | - | 3 (2) | - | - |
1997-98 | 43 (15) | 26 (11) | 6 (2) | - | - | 11 (2) | - | - |
1998-99 | 34 (6) | 21 (1) | 4 | - | 8 (4) | - | - | 1 (1) |
1999-00 | 47 (7) | 28 (5) | 6 (1) | 12 (1) | - | - | 1 | - |
2000-01 | 46 (13) | 31 (9) | 4 (1) | 10 (3) | - | - | - | 1 |
Total | 208 (51) | 138 (33) | 23 (5) | 22 (4) | 8 (4) | 14 (4) | 1 | 2 (1) |
Sources
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