Triumph in Donetsk

Simon Basten
Sep 12, 2023
2 min read

Season 2000-01

Game 1, Champions League, Group B

Tuesday September 12, 2000

RSC Olympiyskiy Stadium, Donetsk

Shakhtar Donetsk Lazio 0-3

Lazio impress in their first Champions League game thanks to goals from Claudio Lopez, Nedved and Inzaghi

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.

Today was the first Champions League game. Lazio were in Group B with Arsenal, Shakhtar Donetsk and Sparta Prague.

The match

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