Hakuna Matata #11: Our Father – Sampdoria v Arsenal 1995 Cup Winners’ Cup semi final
By Sean-Paul Reilly
I remember being 8 years old, and sitting in front of the telly: I remember looking at the crucifix on the wall, and my brother sitting next to me. I vaguely remember the game itself, but most of all, I remember my dad watching.
David Seaman saves Lombardo's spot kick to win the tie
He was an Arsenal fan, which meant I was an Arsenal fan too, despite the best efforts of my aunt, a Spurs season ticket holder (Boo! hiss!). Arsenal were playing the 2nd leg of a cup winners cup semi-final against Sampdoria, and the tie was heading towards penalties – I had even been allowed to stay up late such was the importance of the occasion.
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Blast from the past: 1999 Cup Winners Cup Final – Lazio v Mallorca
In 1999 Villa Park hosted the 39th Cup Winners Cup final, it was to be the final edition of the European knockout tournament before it was consumed into the UEFA cup. The final final was contested by Lazio and R.C.D. Mallorca, the two sides had battled their way through four rounds of two legged ties before reaching the final. Lazio beating Lausanne (3-3 away goals), FK Partizan (3-2 agg), Panionios (7-0) and Lokomotiv Moscow (1-1 away goals). Mallorca stopped Chelsea reaching the final, beating the blues 0-1 at Stamford Bridge.
Formations - both sides playing 4-4-2. Mallorca using a diamond in midfield
Lazio won the game 2-1 and took the trophy but anyone who saw the game would have been forgiven for thinking that Mallorca had been mugged. Lazio’s style of play was very stereotypical of their manager. Sven-Goran Eriksson favoured a very rigid 4-4-2, the emphasis was on maintaining shape defensively looking to break as quickly as possible to catch teams on the counter attack. The first goal was indicative of this tactic, the ball was simply played long toward Vieri and Salas who were stationed some 40-50 yards up the pitch from the central midfielders. Christian Vieri used all of his strength to rise above Siviero and put a looping header in at the far post.
The constant distance between the strikers and midfielders remained 40-50 yards whenever Lazio had the ball, this was indicative of how the game was panning out in the first half and how Lazio were setting their stall out. The vast majority of their link up play was left to the central midfield pairing to produce. Roberto Mancini and Hugo Almeyda spent their time on the pitch with a 10 yard piece of elastic between them. They shuffled up and down the pitch as a unit to attempt to get to the strikers, Almeyda was a shade more defensive than Mancini. Link up play with the wingers was very rare, it was all about straight line play.
Mallorca on the other hand were the complete anti-thesis of straight line play, they were holding possession and playing triangles around the Lazio players. This was facilitated by the midfield diamond deployed by coach, Hector Cuper. Engonga sat at the base of the diamond and swept up any second balls that came from the Lazio counter attacks. Whilst Lauren and Stankovic went from inside to out and provided plenty of width, constantly finding themselves in plenty of space to run at the Lazio full backs or link up with Ibagaza in the hole or the strikers, Dani and Biagini. Mallorca were playing better football for the first hour of the match but were struggling to break through Nesta and Mihajlovic at the heart of the Lazio defence.
The game changed when Eriksson brought on right winger Sergio Conceicao for Stankovic. Within 10 minutes of being on the pitch the Lazio players had finally worked out how to get the ball out to their wingers who were finding space to cut inside as well as go to the by line and deliver crosses across the box. The winning goal came in the 81st minute when Vieri and Siviero went up for a 50-50 header and the ball dropped to the young Pavel Nedved, the Czech winger had cut inside and found himself at the right place at the right time to deliver a roundhouse kick that would see the ball nestling into the bottom corner of the net.
Whilst Mallorca started the game as the stronger of the two sides, dominating for the greater portion of the playing time, their inability to find a breakthrough and their lack of concentration in the final 15 minutes cost them. There is also the question of whether the Spaniards had run out of steam and the Romans superior fitness had carried them through to win the trophy.
For Lazio this was in many ways the beginning of the end, they would go on to win the 1999-00 Scudetto but they soon were on the brink of being wound up after running up over €100m of debt under Eriksson, many of the players bought for huge sums, such as Hernan Crespo, were released for peanuts just a few years later.
Serie A: Lazio sum up decade in a season
Football calendars all over western Europe are beginning to draw to a close, fans of clubs fighting for survival will be poring over the final few fixtures with their calculators trying to desperately scrape every point possible to prove their side’s survival mathematically. No side in Serie A are more concerned with their side’s form than Lazio. This season marks the 10th Anniversary of the roman side’s second scudetto under the frivolous direction of Sven Goran Eriksson and the liberal chequebook of Sergio Cragnotti.
How fitting then that this season has been a succinct snapshot of the past decade. Lazio began the season with a victory against Inter in the Italian Super Cup, Italy’s charity shield, coming from behind to win 2-1. This lead to some solid and inspired victories against Atalanta and Chievo in the league and Elfsborg in a Europa League qualifier. With European competition confirmed and the team looking good in Serie A they welcomed Juventus to the Stadio Olimpico looking to defend their 100% record. The defeat, 0-2, while not ideal was still a respectable result against a good Juventus side.
The result triggered a complete breakdown throughout the Lazio squad, the undercurrent of problems regarding the ostracised players Ledesma and Pandev began to come to the fore. The players were banished from participating with any first team activities as is the custom for rebellious players at many Italian clubs. The slump left Lazio searching for another win between the end of August and December 13th when they finally beat Genoa. They went into the Christmas break sitting perilously close the relegation zone. Something had to change when they came back in the new year.
The New year began with a number of changes, both good and bad. First of all Goran Pandev’s case was finally heard and resolved. He had been freed by the CAS and Inter snapped him up almost immediately, this was a big blow. Lazio had lost a player who could’ve been great for them, for free and had not even been allowed to contribute to any form of campaign this season. Sergio Floccari was brought in and scored in the opening game of the year, which was a 4-1 win against Livorno. An obvious false dawn given Livorno’s slip to the bottom of the table.
After this it was back to business as normal, losing and drawing against teams we would have expected to beat before the beginning of the season. Time had finally run out for Davide Ballardini and he was promptly asked to leave the club on the 10th February. New manager syndrome provided a 2-0 victory away to Parma on valentines day but this was followed by a draw and 3 defeats. One of Reja’s stipulations was that he would bring Cristian Ledesma out of the wilderness and he would have full control over matters of player discipline, or else.
A home to defeat to Bari, the first in over 25 years, left Lazio in the relegation places. This led the Lazio boss to take his team on retreat to Norcia in Umbria. Reja was outraged when busy-body chairman Lotito arranged for a sports psychologist to turn up and counsel the demoralised squad. Reja came out and stated that he alone would decide who would see the psychologist, in the end no one did surprisingly.
Lazio haven’t been helped by the very good seasons that Bari and Parma have had but they need to pick up as many points as possible as they look toward the final quarter of the season. They will have to target fixtures such as tonight’s game against relegation rivals Siena. Here are my predictions for their run-in.
| 24 Mar | Siena (H) |
| 28 Mar | Milan (A) |
| 03 Apr | Napoli (H) |
| 11 Apr | Bologna (A) |
| 18 Apr | Roma (H) |
| 24 Apr | Genoa (A) |
| 01 May | Inter (H) |
| 08 May | Livorno (A) |
| 15 May | Udinese (H) |
This is a very tough run in, they will need to pick up points against Siena, Livorno and Udinese. They will also be playing all 3 title contenders in Inter, Milan and Roma. These games will almost certainly end in defeat but any upsets will be very much appreciated by a side who need every point they can get. Games against Napoli and Genoa will be the games where points, though not expected, are achievable.
In the past 3 seasons 36 points has been enough to keep the side in 17th place up. Lazio can hope to achieve this watermark with wins 3 wins against their rivals. However one of these will have to come on the final day of the season. Nervous times are ahead for fans of the roman club, this is a season where victory in the Rome derby would be so so sweet.