Great Serie A Games: Roma-Inter 1998/99

By: Francesco | November 4th, 2009

Zamorano18

Roma-Inter from May of 1999 is another highly entertaining game from one of the most entertaining Serie A seasons of all time. The 1998-99 season had 3 leaders of the table (for the first part of the season it was Fiorentina, who were winter champions but were then hurt by the injury of Batistuta, then Lazio, who looked on their way to the Scudetto but fell off form towards the end, and then Milan who surprised everyone and stole the Scudetto on the last day). Juventus had a bad year, with Del Piero suffering a big injury and Lippi being replaced mid-season by Carlo Ancelotti. Inter were expecting big things with their strike pair of Roberto Baggio and Ronaldo, but various injuries led to the latter two not playing much together all season, and Inter went through 3 coaches before finishing the season with Roy Hodgson. For Roma, this was their last season of the Zdenek Zeman era, as Fabio Capello would take over in the summer. Roma practiced the Zeman philosophy, 4-3-3 formation, free-flowing constant attacking football, leaving many defensive holes. It’s no surprise that this game ended 5-4 in Inter’s favor. Game story after the jump.

This game was played in early May of 1999 with the season coming to an end. Roma were fighting for a place in the Champions League, while Inter were having a disastrous season and hoped to salvage some of it by at least getting a UEFA Cup qualification spot. This was one of the few games of the season where Inter had Roberto Baggio and Ronaldo both fit, as well as Chilean striker Ivan Zamorano, always deadly on headers. To counter Zeman’s 4-3-3, Hodgson put out his own 4-3-3, with the trio of Baggio, Ronaldo, and Zamorano up front. Inter kept taking the lead but Roma kept fighting back with it’s own trio, Marco Delvecchio, Francesco Totti, and Brazilian Paulo Sergio (who left for Bayern Munich that summer and won the Champions League). Like I said, Inter kept taking the lead, and Roma always found a way back until the end when Diego Simeone scored the winning goal. It was highly entertaining. And of course something to not: what a joy it was to watch Roberto Baggio play, no matter what shirt he was wearing. He was involved in 4 of Inter’s 5 goals in this match.