2001–02 S.S. Lazio season

Lazio

2001–02 season
Chairman	Sergio Cragnotti
Owner	Sergio Cragnotti
Manager	Dino Zoff Alberto Zaccheroni
Serie A	6th
Coppa Italia	Quarter-finals
UEFA Champions League	First group stage
Top goalscorer	League: Hernán Crespo (13) All: Hernán Crespo (20)
Home colours
← 2000–01 2002–03 →

S.S. Lazio had a major setback during the 2001–02 season, in which financial turmoil started to unfold, prompting sales and rumoured exits of several key players.

Season

In the build-up to the season, cash-stripped owner Sergio Cragnotti had sold Juan Sebastián Verón to Manchester United, as well as Pavel Nedvěd and Marcelo Salas to Juventus. Gaizka Mendieta arrived from Valencia expected to replace Nedvěd, while Stefano Fiore and Giuliano Giannichedda were signed from Udinese. Fiore was intended as a replacement for Verón, while Giannichedda was meant to become a squad-player, offering coach Dino Zoff further options on the central midfield. Also Claudio López finally was fit for fight following a long injury lay-off following the privous year's €35 million transfer from Valencia. As it was he came to be a replacement for Salas. His scoring tally compared to Salas in Juventus proved it was a shrewd decision, but with his price tag the expectations were higher.

Meanwhile, Manchester United's Dutch International Jaap Stam released an autobiography, in which he criticised manager Sir Alex Ferguson, which meant that he was put up for sale, and Lazio snapped him up for £16,5 million.

Zoff experimented with a 3-5-2 formation in the beginning of the season, but even though the defensive line including captain Alessandro Nesta and Stam came well to terms with the change, the midfield was lacking in creativity, rendering in a disappointing season from star signing Mendieta. In the season before, inspired strikes from Hernán Crespo had often saved Lazio from dropping unnecessary points, but the star striker failed to find the net, and due to those mishaps Zoff was eventually sacked.

New coach Alberto Zaccheroni came in and formed his usual 3-4-3 formation, which at least got the offensive play underway, with Crespo scoring two hat-tricks during the winter. However, Zaccheroni reckoned Crespo such important, that he fielded the Argentinian, even when he was unfit due to minor injury setbacks. A positive drugs test from Stam meant the season went from bad to worse, and in the end Lazio even failed to qualify for the Champions League, although it beat both eventual champions Juventus and title aspirants Internazionale in the showdown game, in which both Nesta and Crespo played their last matches for the club. That game ended 4–2, which assured Juventus's title.

The worst performance of the year was undoubtedly the derby against Roma in March, where Vincenzo Montella hit the back of the net four times as Roma romped to a 5–1 victory, and due to the humiliation the relationship between team captain and bandiera Nesta and Cragnotti worsened.

Squad

Goalkeepers

• Luca Marchegiani
• Angelo Peruzzi
• Emanuele Concetti

Defenders

• Francesco Colonnese
• César
• Siniša Mihajlović
• Alessandro Nesta
• Giuseppe Pancaro
• Guerino Gottardi
• Paolo Negro
• Giuseppe Favalli
• Fernando Couto
• Alberto Comazzi
• Daniel Ola
• Jaap Stam

Midfielders

• Dino Baggio
• Dejan Stanković
• Gaizka Mendieta
• Karel Poborský
• Roberto Baronio
• Diego Simeone
• Giuliano Giannichedda
• Stefano Fiore
• Iván de la Peña
• Lucas Castromán
• Fabio Liverani

Attackers

• kovac Darko Kovačević
• Claudio López
• Simone Inzaghi
• Hernan Crespo

Serie A

Matches

1	Lazio	1_1	Piacenza
	C. López  17'		Matuzalém  77'

2	Perugia	0–0	Lazio

3	Lazio	0–0	Torino

4	Milan	2–0	Lazio
	F. Inzaghi  41' Laursen  56'

5	Lazio	0–0	Parma

6	Lazio	2–0	Atalanta
	C. López  42' Couto  71'

7	Venezia	0–0	Lazio

8	Roma	2–0	Lazio
	Delvecchio  49' Totti  50'

9	Lazio	5–0	Brescia
	Crespo  6, 32, 79' S. Inzaghi  39' Stanković  63'

10	Udinese	1–4	Lazio
	Caballero  78'		Crespo  54, 89' Liverani  74' C. López  84'

11	Lazio	1–0	Juventus
	Liverani  49'

12	Lecce	1–2	Lazio
	Cirillo  66'		Crespo  58' (pen.) S. Inzaghi  61'

13	Lazio	3–0	Fiorentina
	Poborský  12' Crespo  56' C. López  86'

14	Verona	3–1	Lazio
	Camoranesi  41' Colucci  66' Mutu  72'		Crespo  55'

15	Lazio	2–2	Bologna
	C. López  19, 34'		Cruz  41' Zaccardo  76'

16	Inter	0–0	Lazio

17	Piacenza	1–0	Lazio
	Hübner  69'

18	Lazio	5–0	Perugia
	S. Inzaghi  9' C. López  32' Fiore  52' Stanković  57' Negro  63'

19	Torino	1–0	Lazio
	Lucarelli  61'

20	Chievo	3–1	Lazio
	Marazzina  46' Corini  77', 88' (pen.)		C. López  7'

21	Lazio	1–1	Milan
	Stanković  20'		Shevchenko  90'

22	Parma	1–0	Lazio
	Di Vaio  67'

23	Lazio	1–1	Chievo
	S. Inzaghi  31'		Legrottaglie  85'

24	Atalanta	0–1	Lazio
			Poborský  78'

25	Lazio	4–2	Venezia
	Crespo  24', 45 + 3' (pen.), 74' Pancaro  45'		Bettarini  67' Maniero  73'

26	Lazio	1–5	Roma
	Stanković  59'		Montella  12, 29, 36, 63' Totti  71'

27	Brescia	1–1	Lazio
	Yllana  90' (pen.)		Crespo  56'

28	Lazio	2–0	Udinese
	Stanković  32' Fiore  79'

29	Juventus	1–1	Lazio
	Trezeguet  37'		C. López  24'

30	Lazio	1–0	Lecce
	Fiore  68'

31	Fiorentina	0–1	Lazio
			Castromán  24'

32	Lazio	5–4	Verona
	Stam  29' C. López  31' (pen.) Stanković  45, 51' Crespo  76'		Frick  9' Colucci  79' Cossato  88' Adaílton  90 + 4'

33	Bologna	2–0	Lazio
	Signori  50' Pecchia  88'

34	Lazio	4–2	Inter
	Poborský  19, 45' Simeone  55' S. Inzaghi  73'		Vieri  12' Di Biagio  24'

Top Scorers

• Hernan Crespo 13 (2)
• Claudio López 10 (1)
• Dejan Stanković 5
• Simone Inzaghi 5
• Karel Poborský 4

Results summary

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
34	14	11	9	50	37	+13	53	10	6	1	38	18	+20	4	5	8	12	19	−7

Champions League

Qualifying Stage

• Copenhagen–Lazio 2-1
• 0-1 Hernán Crespo (56)
• 1-1 Jacob Laursen (73 pen)
• 2-1 Heine Fernandez (76)

• Lazio–Copenhagen 4-1
• 1-0 Hernán Crespo (48)
• 2-0 Hernán Crespo (63)
• 3-0 Claudio López (65)
• 3-1 Sibusiso Zuma (81)
• 4-1 Stefano Fiore (90)

Group Stage

• Galatasaray–Lazio 1-0
• 1-0 Ümit Karan (79)

• Lazio–Nantes 1-3
• 0-1 Néstor Fabbri (3)
• 1-1 Fernando Couto (7)
• 1-2 Sylvain Armand (63)
• 1-3 Stéphane Ziani (86)

• PSV Eindhoven–Lazio 1-0
• 1-0 Kevin Hofland (40)

• Lazio–PSV Eindhoven 2-1
• 1-0 Stefano Fiore (39)
• 2-0 Claudio López (55 pen)
• 2-1 Mateja Kežman (56)

• Lazio–Galatasaray 1-0
• 1-0 Dejan Stanković (76)

• Nantes–Lazio 1-0
• 1-0 Pierre-Yves André (76)

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2001–02 in Serie A Atalanta Bologna Brescia Chievo Fiorentina Internazionale Juventus Lazio Lecce Milan Parma Perugia Piacenza Roma Torino Udinese Venezia Verona