wisla polish stuns lazio published: thursday 20 february 2003, 23.45cet s.s. lazio 3-3 wisla kraków enrico chiesa salvages a draw after the poles had threatened an upset.
maciej zurawski converted two second-half penalties as wisla kraków drew 3-3 at the stadio olimpico to take charge of their uefa cup fourth-round tie.
kasperczak surprise even wisla coach henryk kasperczak admitted he was surprised by how well his team had played. "i can't say i expected this result but what i always expect is a good performance from my team," he said. "qualification will be decided in krakow. i’m a little disappointed because we played so well in the second half, and could have scored more."
lazetic drive after an untidy opening, lazio took the lead after 23 minutes. kamil kosowski headed sinisa mihajlovic's corner clear, but only as far as nikola lazetic, whose shot from the edge of the box took a deflection on its way past angelo hugues.
unlucky poles that was hard on wisla, who had frustrated lazio until then, but the italian side caused them no end of trouble from set-pieces. stefano fiore blazed just wide from another dead-ball situation, and diego simeone drew a scrambling low save from hugues, before wisla equalised in the 40th minute.
admirable calm kosowski, who worked tirelessly all night, won possession wide on the left, and worked the ball back to cantoro. he slipped it through to kalu uche, who showed admirable calm to dummy luca marchegiani, check back on to his left foot, and roll the ball in.
jop gaffe for a few minutes it was all wisla, but then cantoro conceded a free-kick on the halfway line and enrico chiesa was set free down the right. he crossed to the near post, where mariusz jop, under pressure from simeone, prodded the ball into his own net.
no mistake wisla, though, hit the ground running in the second half, and capitalised on two lazio defensive errors. fernando couto gifted zurawski possession, and he laid it through for marcin kuzba, who was clipped by marchegiani. zurawski sent his penalty low to the keeper's right.
other side thirteen minutes later, it was zurawski, again presented with the ball by the lazio defence, who was brought down by marchegiani, and this time zurawski put the ball to the keeper's left, as marchegiani again dived to his right.
polish dominance at this stage wisla were utterly in charge, and they had more than enough chances to wrap the game up, kosowski missing two great opportunities, but chiesa struck with 19 minutes remaining to earn lazio a draw.
side-foot finish substitute claudio lópez was played onside by maciej stolarczyk, and he cut into the box before squaring for chiesa to side-foot high into the empty net. wisla perhaps deserved the win, but, so long as they can sort out their defending at set-pieces, with three away goals, they are favourites to reach the quarter-finals.
mancini not giving up however, lazio coach roberto mancini is refusing to give up on the tie. "we have to be a lot more careful defensively," he said. "and that means not just the defence, but also the midfield and the attack - they must help out. now we have to try our hardest to win in poland but we are definitely capable of doing that."
