2001–02 SS Lazio season
| 2001–02 season | ||
|---|---|---|
| Chairman | 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) | |
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Società Sportiva 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
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
Serie A
Matches
| 4 | Milan | 2–0 | Lazio | |
F. Inzaghi  41' Laursen 56' |
| 8 | Roma | 2–0 | Lazio | |
| Delvecchio 49' Totti 50' |
| 9 | Lazio | 5–0 | Brescia | |
| Crespo 6, 32, 79' S. Inzaghi 39' Stanković 63' |
| 13 | Lazio | 3–0 | Fiorentina | |
| Poborský 12' Crespo 56' C. López 86' |
| 21 | Lazio | 1–1 | Milan | |
| Stanković 20' |
Shevchenko 90' |
| 23 | Lazio | 1–1 | Chievo | |
| S. Inzaghi 31' |
Legrottaglie 85' |
| 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' |
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)