September 14, 1999: Bayer Leverkusen Lazio 1-1, Champions League
- Simon Basten
- Sep 14
- 13 min read
Draw in the first Champions League match
Thanks to Mihajlovic, Lazio manage to draw in their first ever Champions League match
Also on this day:
The season so far
In the previous season Lazio had gone agonisingly close to winning the scudetto. With eight games to the end of the season they were leading with five points over Fiorentina and seven over Milan. But a single point in the next three games reduced the cushion over Milan to just one point. Lazio then won three consecutive games but so did Milan. 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.
In the summer transfer window, Lazio surprisingly sold their centre forward Christian Vieri to Inter in exchange for 90 billion lire (45 million euros) plus Diego Simeone. Other signings were Juan Sebastian Veron and Nestor Sensini from Parma, Simone Inzaghi from Piacenza and Kenneth Andersson from Bologna.
The 1999-00 season opened with the victory against the mighty Manchester United in Monte Carlo for the UEFA Super Cup with a Marcelo Salas goal. Another European triumph after having won the last ever Cup Winners Cup the previous year in Birmingham against Real Mallorca.
The Biancocelesti had played two Serie A games so far, winning their first against Cagliari and drawing at Bari.
Today was the first Champions League match. They were grouped with Bayer Leverkusen, Dynamo Kiev and NK Maribor. The game today was historic, it was the first time Lazio played in the top European competition.
The match: Tuesday, September 14, 1999, BayArena, Leverkusen
The first game in Champions League was a solemn moment for all the Biancocelesti fans, but perhaps the team felt the game too much and in the first half an hour there was no sign of the potentially strong team Lazio could be. In fact, it was Bayer Leverkusen to dominate the match. Perhaps sensing that things could go wrong defensively, manager Sven-Goran Eriksson left Marcelo Salas and Pavel Nedved on the bench, preferring Roberto Mancini who would act as middle man between midfield and attack and a more defensive Attilio Lombardo. As a consequence Alen Boksic was left alone up front.
Bayer scored in their first dangerous attempt. In the 14th minute Bernd Schneider crossed from the right, Oliver Neuville tried a volley which deflected off Alessandro Nesta and went into the net wrong footing Luca Marchegiani.
Fortunately, the lead did not last long. Four minutes later Sinisa Mihajlovic had a free kick some 25 metres out on the right. Fantastic curled shot in on the front post, 1-1.
Lazio seemed content with the draw until the 33rd minute when the ball came into the Biancoceleste penalty box like in a flipper with a number of deflected shots. This forced Lazio to come out of their shell and Boksic had a couple of chances in the final minutes of the first half but both shots were off target.
In the second 45 minutes, Eriksson substituted Juan Sebastian Veron with Diego Simeone in the 51st minute and finally things got going. A minute earlier however the hosts had hit the woodwork with Neuville thanks to a back heel pass from … Mancini. Lazio had four clear chances: with Beppe Pancaro in the 57th minute who tried a shot instead of passing to Boksic, in the 61st with Simeone who was only just late to the appointment, Mancini a minute later with a header wide by a whisker, and again El Cholo in the 65th when he was clearly fouled in the box by Adam Matysek. Eriksson threw in Salas and Nedved and it looked as if Lazio could score any minute, but Bayer held their fort well.
The Biancocelesti were strong, but still needed to acquire a winning mentality.
Who played for Bayer Leverkusen
Matysek, Hejduk, Kovac, Nowotny, Gresko (67' Beinlich), Schneider, Emerson, Ramelow, Zé Roberto, Reichenberger (82' Ponte), Neuville (73' Brdaric)
Substitutes: Heinen, Happe, Zivkovic, Mamlic
Manager: Daum
Who played for Lazio
Marchegiani, Negro, Nesta, Mihajlovic, Pancaro, Lombardo, Almeyda, Veron (50’ Simeone), Stankovic, Mancini (79’ Nedved), Boksic (80’ Salas)
Manager: Eriksson
Referee: Poll
Goals: 14’ Neuville, 18’ Mihajlovic
What happened next
Lazio won their group thanks to four wins against the Ukrainians and Slovenians plus two draws against the Germans. The second part of the Champions League was another group phase, this time against Chelsea, Olympique Marseille and Feyenoord.
Qualification for the quarterfinal was put in peril by only getting one point against the Dutch, after beating the French twice. In the final game against Chelsea, after having drawn at home, Lazio had to win at Stamford Bridge to clinch the qualification in first place (the top two teams went through) as a bonus, so they could avoid having to play the quarter final against Barcelona, Manchester United or Bayern. They managed to do so, coming from behind in a spectacular game. In the quarterfinals Lazio played against Valencia. Everybody thought that it would be an easy match, but Lazio collapsed in Spain. Without Luca Marchegiani and Alessandro Nesta, Lazio went 2-0 down after four minutes, re-opened the game thanks to an Inzaghi goal half way through the first half, but Valencia netted another two goals and with ten minutes to go were leading 4-1. Salas scored in the dying minutes to give Lazio a chance of qualification but another defensive blunder, with just a few seconds left, gave Valencia a three goal lead. Fans were hopeful Lazio could recover at the Olimpico, but the Biancocelesti only scored one goal with Veron and went out of the Champions League. A real pity.
Lazio, like many of the big teams, started the Coppa Italia in the fourth round games and had to play against Reggiana, who had won their group in August. Lazio, with a few Primavera players in the starting eleven, plus more on the bench, had drawn the first leg away 1-1 (Alen Boksic the scorer for the Biancocelesti) and won the return match 4-1 at home thanks to a Sinisa Mihajlovic free kick double and goals by Simone Inzaghi and Boksic.
The quarter finals were much more difficult as Lazio had to face Juventus. At the end of the first half in Turin the Biancocelesti were losing 3-0 and were virtually out of the competition. But in the second half, first a penalty scored by Fabrizio Ravanelli and then a goal by Roberto Mancini with ten minutes to go re-opened the contest. In the return match at the Olimpico Lazio scored in the second half with Boksic. Alessandro Del Piero equalised but Diego Simeone put Lazio ahead in the 81st minute and the Biancocelesti were able to hold onto the precious victory.
Whereas on the one side there were two big clashes in the quarter finals (Lazio vs Juve and the Milanese derby), the other two games should have been more one-sided: Cagliari-Roma and Fiorentina-Venezia. But the islanders eliminated the Giallorossi and an away goal by Venezia gave them a historic semi-final against Lazio.
In the first leg, Lazio destroyed Venezia 5-0 with doubles from Mancini and Mihajlovic (with two penalties) plus a Ravanelli goal. Silver Fox had also missed a penalty. The return was just a formality and Lazio drew 2-2 with an Inzaghi double.
Inter brushed off Cagliari and so met Lazio in the final. The first leg was in Rome on April 12. Inter scored immediately with Clarence Seedorf but Lazio managed to equalise with Pavel Nedved at the end of the first half. In the beginning of the second, Simeone put Lazio ahead so Marcelo Lippi put Ronaldo on the pitch, his first game in five months. Five minutes later the Brazilian broke his patellar tendon. The scene was dramatic and very sad. The game basically ended there.
In the Campionato the Biancocelesti started well and by the sixth game they took the solitary lead. Juventus caught up with Lazio in the 10th game after the Biancocelesti lost the derby. A trio of teams (Lazio, Roma and Juve) then led the Serie A for a few matches until Lazio sprinted off in the 14th. It did not last long. A loss on a frozen Venice evening on January 5 gave Juventus the lead again. Roma had fallen behind. Lazio regained the top of the table after beating Bologna in the Centenary game, but two goalless draws in the next two games gave Juve a three-point lead. By the 26th game the deficit increased to nine points and it looked as if it was all over for the scudetto. But on March 25 Lazio won the derby and Juve lost at Milan. The Biancocelesti were at -6 but the next match was in Turin against Juventus. Thanks to a goal from Diego Simeone, the Juventus lead was reduced to three points. However Florence looked as if it would be fatal again as Lazio drew 3-3 and Juventus won in Milan against Inter.
There were four games to go. Everybody thought it was all over but manager Sven- Goran Eriksson tried to get the team to believe in the impossible. In the 32nd game of the season Lazio beat Venezia and Juventus lost at Verona. Two games to go, two points difference. Lazio beat Bologna away and Juventus were winning 1-0 against Parma. Towards the end of the match there was a corner for Parma. Mario Amoroso crossed and Fabio Cannavaro equalised but the referee inexplicably disallowed it.
This was the talking point in Italy for the entire week. Juve had already won a controversial scudetto a couple of years back when a clear penalty on Ronaldo was not given to Inter in Turin. So there was massive media pressure on the last two games of the season: Lazio-Reggina and Perugia-Juventus.
Perugia President Luciano Gaucci, ashamed of the lack of fighting spirit his team had shown against Milan in the last game of the previous season, stated that it would not be a walkover for Juventus. Lazio fans hoped in a draw and then to go to a playoff. And this is what was happening at the end of the first half. Lazio were winning 2-0 and it was still goalless in Perugia. But a massive storm had erupted over the Umbrian capital and the pitch was waterlogged. Referee Pierluigi Collina tried a number of times to see if the ball would bounce on the waterlogged pitch, but no. There was a problem. If the game had been abandoned they would have to start from scratch the next day. With what had happened in the previous match when Cannavaro’s goal was disallowed for no reason at all, the Italian referee felt that the repetition of the game would have been unfair. So he insisted. When they were about to give up, the rain stopped. The pitch was not in ideal condition, but playable. The second half could recommence, an hour later than it should have. In the 50th minute Alessandro Calori scored for Perugia. Juve did not manage to equalise and Lazio won their second scudetto.
Still smelling of champagne and without any training whatsoever since the Sunday match, Lazio faced Inter for the second leg of the Coppa Italia final. There were chances for both sides, particularly for Inter in the dying seconds of the match, when Alvaro Recoba hit the woodwork, but the game was goalless and the Biancocelesti won the double.
An amazing season.
Let’s talk about Sinisa Mihajlovic
Sinisa Mihajlovic was born in Vukovar in former Yugoslavia on February 20, 1969, he started his footballing career in the youth teams of Borovo where he grew up. He was particularly well known for his ability on free kicks. In 1986 he signed for Vojvodina where he played for two years before the big move to Red Star Belgrade.
Red Star had been keeping an eye on him for years and had failed to sign him when he was a teenager. Now at 21, Sinisa joined a club that had a number of interesting players such as Dejan Savicevic, Robert Prosinečki, Vladimir Jugovic and Darko Pancev. In his first season he won the European Cup and scored two decisive goals in the semi-final against Bayern Munich. In his second year he won the Intercontinental Cup in the final against Colo Colo.
In the summer of 1992, he was about to go to Juventus but new Roma manager Vujadin Boskov convinced him to join the Giallorossi. It was not a good year for Roma, Mihajlovic was forced to play left back and did not play as well as he could. Boskov left after a season and in came Carletto Mazzone who continued to play Sinisa as left back. Another bad year.
An unhappy Mihajlovic was glad to join Sampdoria in 1994. Under manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, he started playing in central defence. Eriksson wanted to exploit Sinisa’s ability to build and organise play from the back. His long and precise passes to the forwards, especially to Roberto Mancini, from his own half were a trademark that Sampdoria often used. Furthermore, Sinisa was great at free kicks and corners, other tools that Sampdoria used in abundance. He played four seasons in Genoa, 128 total appearances and 15 goals.
After a year at Lazio, Eriksson and Mancini asked President Sergio Cragnotti to sign Mihajlovic, and Sinisa from being a great player turned into a legendary one. Pairing up with Alessandro Nesta at the centre of Lazio’s defence, allowed him a freedom of movement that became lethal at times. Goals and assists from spot kicks were trademarks of Eriksson’s Lazio. Every time there was a free kick or a corner, there was a scoring opportunity, which got even better with the arrival of Juan Sebastian Veron in 1999.
In his six years at Lazio, Sinisa played 193 games (126 in Serie A, 22 in Coppa Italia, 27 in Champions League, 9 in the UEFA Cup Winners Cup, 6 in the UEFA Cup, two in the Supecoppa finals and one UEFA Super Cup) and scored 33 goals (20 in Serie A, 6 in Coppa Italia, 6 in Champions League and one in the Supercoppa).
He won a scudetto, the Coppa Italia twice, an Italian Supercoppa, a UEFA Cup Winners Cup and a UEFA Super Cup.
His stay at Lazio was at times difficult. He was booed by the fans for a while and got an 8-match ban for having spat at Adrian Mutu (the Romanian has never been a friend of Lazio’s and is well known to be as pleasant as sand in your underpants). He however won the fans back and became immensely popular, fans rising to their feet every time he took a corner. Lazio fans will also never forget that he scored Lazio’s first goal in Champions League (vs Bayern Leverkusen on September 14 1999), scored a hat trick on free kick (vs Sampdoria on December 13 1998) and a memorable winning goal at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea on March 22 2000.
He was strong, had a great sense of position and was able to read the game like no other. What he lacked in defensive abilities, he made up for by being a playmaker who built Lazio’s game from the back. Often journalists used to ask him “who is better at free kicks, you or Roberto Carlos?” “He was good, very good, but I was better” he would always reply.
With the crumbling of Cragnotti’s financial empire, Mihajlovic left Lazio and joined Mancini at Inter. President Claudio Lotito had asked him to stay but Lazio could not afford to keep him. He played two years at Inter, though his contribution in the last season was minimal, after which he quit football.
He played 63 times for his country with ten goals, 4 times for Yugoslavia before the civil war, 58 times for the Yugoslavian Federation and once for Serbia. He participated in the World Cup of 1998 and Euro 2000.
He started his managerial career as assistant coach to Mancini at Inter where he won two Scudetti and a Supercoppa. He then went on to be head coach at Bologna in 2008 replacing Daniele Arrigoni. He was sacked in April 2009. In December 2009 he was called to Catania and was able to keep them in Serie A the first year and get the club’s point record in the second.
He was chosen by Fiorentina in 2010. His first year was not a good one but he was confirmed, only to be sacked in November 2011. In 2012 he was the new head coach of Serbia but he failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup and came back to Italy to manage Sampdoria. He stayed for two years before joining Milan in 2015. With Milan he did not do too badly and reached the final of the Coppa Italia but then following a string of bad results, he was sacked in April 2016.
In 2016 he managed Torino, doing very well in the first half of the season and not so well in the second half but was confirmed for the 2017-18 season only to be sacked in January. In July 2018 he became manager at Sporting Lisbon but was fired after just 9 days.
In January 2019 he substituted Pippo Inzaghi at Bologna and guided the club to safety. After being confirmed as manager he announced that he had leukaemia but he continued to manage the team. Bologna never reached exceptional heights but always had a safe journey in Serie A. After a bad start to the 2022-23 season and the return of the illness, the Bologna management decided to give the reins of the squad to Thiago Motta.
Sinisa died in Rome on December 15, 2022. A very sad day for all Lazio fans.
“A great Laziale, a warrior on the pitch and in life. His courage on the field was second only to what he showed in facing this serious illness”, said Claudio Lotito in a statement. “This warrior with a great heart will remain in the history of Lazio not only for having been Italian Champion, but for the message of hope in facing difficulty that he represented up until his last moments”.
Mihajlovic always remained a Lazio fan as he often stated in interviews. The last time he came to play Lazio as Bologna manager in August 2022, after the 2-1 defeat he was asked how upset he was and he replied that as a Lazio fan he was never as upset as losing against other teams.
Sinisa is now leading Lazio’s defence in heaven alongside Giuseppe Wilson and under the guidance of Tommaso Maestrelli. Giorgio Chinaglia and Silvio Piola will be sure to benefit.
Lazio Career
Season | Total games (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Cup Winners Cup | UEFA Cup | UEFA Super Cup | Super Coppa |
1998-99 | 44 (9) | 30 (8) | 4 (1) | - | 9 | - | - | 1 |
1999-00 | 46 (13) | 26 (6) | 7 (4) | 12 (3) | - | - | 1 | - |
2000-01 | 29 (8) | 18 (4) | 2 (1) | 8 (2) | - | - | - | 1 (1) |
2001-02 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - |
2002-03 | 28 (1) | 21 (1) | 1 | - | - | 6 | - | - |
2003-04 | 36 (2) | 25 (1) | 6 | 5 | - | - | - | - |
Total | 193 (33) | 126 (20) | 22 (6) | 29 (6) | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 (1) |
Sources
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