Report: Lazio 4 Juventus 1
Sunday 18th March 2001
Lazio did their city rivals a massive favour in the race for the Scudetto by thrashing Juventus 4-1 on Sunday night. Roma are now seven points clear at the top of Serie A.
Lazio had by far the better of the early exchanges and twice could have taken the lead in the opening quarter hour.
Pavel Nedved met a Karel Poborsky cross to force Edwin va der Sar into a save, then Diego Simeone spooned over after being picked out by Juan Sebastian Veron.
They eventually took the lead on 23 minutes, Nedved firing home Crespo's cross after a swift counter-attack.
Juve struggled to get into the game early on and an Alessandro del Piero free-kick saved by Angelo Peruzzi was their sole chance in the opening quarter.
They responded well to going behind, though, and Peruzzi was left thanking Alessandro Nesta as he cleared a close-range Antonio Conte effort off the line.
Zinedine Zidane was again not at his best, largely thanks to the tight marking of Dino Baggio, but he went close with an exquisite volley on 32 minutes.
Peruzzi was in action three minutes after that, instinctively parrying a header from Filippo Inzaghi.
A concerned Carlo Ancelotti made a number of changes at half-time, bringing on David Trezeguet and Gianluca Zambrotta for Conte and Inzaghi.
Lazio, though, doubled their lead 34 seconds after the break, Crespo taking a long ball from Veron in his stride and dispatching the ball beyond Van der Sar.
Trezeguet headed against the bar on 54 minutes and went close again two minutes later, before the game was effectively decided by the dismissal of Edgar Davids just before the hour.
Moments later, Del Piero curled a delightful shot into the corner to give Juve some hope, but that was soon dashed as Nedved took Veron's ball, beat Igor Tudor and drove the ball home.
Lucas Castroman replaced Poborsky and laid on a fourth for Crespo. A bad day for Juventus got even worse in the dying seconds as Trezeguet was sent off for kicking out at Giuseppe Pancaro.
Lazio: Peruzzi, Colonnese (Pesaresi 42), Negro, Nesta, Pancaro, Poborsky (Castroman 80), D Baggio, Veron (Stankovic 75), Simeone, Nedved, Crespo
Juventus: Van der Sar, Birindelli, Tudor, Montero, Pessotto,Conte (Zambrotta 46), Tacchinardi (O'Neill 70), Davids, Zidane, FInzaghi (Trezeguet 46), Del Piero
Booked: Pancaro (Lazio)
Sent off: Davids, Trezeguet (Juventus)
Referee: Pierluigi Collina (Viareggio)
