SERIE A: Lazio pulls closer to Juventus

April 1st, 2000
SportsServer

TURIN, Italy - Argentina's Diego Simeone threw the Italian championship wide open here on Saturday night, scoring the winner as Lazio beat 10-man league leaders Juventus 1-0 to close within three points of the Turin club.

Little more than one minute decided the most important Serie A match this season, with Juventus defender Ciro Ferrara walking off the pitch in the 66th minute for a second bookable offence and Simeone nodding home the winner in the 67th.

Juventus, beaten only once in its opening 26 matches, has now lost its last two after going down 2-0 to reigning champions AC Milan last weekend at San Siro - its nine-point lead at the top being slashed by two thirds in not much more than a week.

Lazio, by contrast, is on a roll after beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge to reach the European Champions League quarterfinals, defeating AS Roma in the derby and now toppling the side which was a runaway favorite for the Serie A title.

Coach Sven Goran Eriksson said: "Winning here is wonderful, and difficult. We suffered. But we won and now at least the championship is certainly more interesting. Juve are perhaps still the favorites, but we're up there."

He went on: "The team are in good shape, especially mentally. We've had three great results - in London, in the derby and this one. We've suffered in all of them, but that's football and the team know how to handle it at the moment."

Dismissing the widely-held view that Lazio has easier fixtures in its last six matches than Juventus, which must return to San Siro to face Inter, he said: "I don't agree. Other teams are fighting for a place in the UEFA Cup etc etc.

"The season is a bit strange at the end because you can come up against a team which no longer has an objective to aim for, and that does make it easier. But at the moment, everyone has something to go for."

Lazio stands to emulate last season's feat by Manchester United, which it beat in the European Super Cup, by winning a Treble. It meets Inter Milan in the Italian Cup final.

Eriksson commented: "We're fighting for everything, and we hope everything goes well."

Juventus coach Carlo Ancelotti was stoical about his team's title chances, saying: "We knew before this match that we'd have to fight for it. Now it's all the more obvious.

"I'm sorry that we lost this game, above all because we didn't deserve to. Just like we didn't deserve to lose in Milan either. The team played well... even when they were down to 10 men. They played the ball and they tried to equalize."

But he added: "We have to look forward, and take things calmly. The team showed here they are very much alive. It's just that now they have to fight more."

Juventus had the lion's share of the possession and the initiative, but paid the price for its failure to take any of the many chances which came its way - with much of the blame resting on the shoulders of Alessandro Del Piero.

The hosts made the best start but Filippo Inzaghi failed to get in a clear shot after collecting a defense-splitting pass and Del Piero smacked a tightly angled drive at Lazio's reserve goalkeeper Marco Ballotta - on inspired form as he stood in for injured Luca Marchegiani.

Juventus turned up the pressure and there was claims for a penalty when 
Inzaghi went down under a clumsy challenge from Lazio's Yugoslav defender Sinisa Mihajlovic.

Ancelotti said: "It was a penalty. But I'm not going to make a drama out of it."

Ballotta was in action again in the 23rd minute when he blocked a searing shot from Inzaghi, but there was a let-off when he was beaten by Zinedine Zidane's chip across the goal but Del Piero sent his header over the bar at the far post.

Del Piero nearly made amends within a few minutes later when he broke through a second time - but again steered his shot straight at the Lazio keeper.

A better chance fell to Lazio in the 41st minute when Simone Inzaghi, Filippo's younger brother, backheeled the ball between defender Paolo Montero's legs and Pavel Nedved's shot from the edge of the six-meter box was only blocked by a sliding tackle from Mark Iuliano.

Zidane had the first chance of the second half, superbly dribbling Portugal's Fernando Couto and then seeing his shot ricochet off another Lazio defender, Giuseppe Pancaro.

Inzaghi ballooned another chance when Ballotta mistimed his dash for a through-ball - with the Juve striker's lob sailing way over the bar.

Zidane then curled a free-kick just wide of the post while Dutch teammate Edgar Davids smacked a rasping low shot which Ballotta managed to block.

Everything was going Juventus' way until the 65th minute when Veron punted a long ball forward and Ferrara felled Inzaghi as the Lazio striker headed for goal. The Juve defender was shown his second yellow card, and then a red one.

A minute later, Veron swung a cross into the area and Simeone got to the ball before Montero, his glancing header into the left-hand corner giving Van Der Sar no chance.

Juventus shrugged off the setback and Zidane slammed in a free-kick from 25 meters which Ballotta only just managed to push over the bar.

And it was the 10 men in black and white who dominated the final quarter of an hour, with Del Piero seeing one shot cannon off the Lazio defense after a scrambled clearance and blasting another hopelessly over the top.
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