Their first match together at Lazio even allowed them to lift a European trophy at the end of August 1999 in Monaco: the European Super Cup, won at the expense of Manchester United (1-0).
Simone Inzaghi, who arrived from Plaisance, then began a long lease with the Biancocelesti, where he remained for some twenty years as a player (until the end of his career in 2010) then as a coach, among young people then at the head of the first team from 2016 to 2021.
Sergio Conceiçao, who arrived a year earlier at Lazio, had remained on the bench in Monaco but had no less deserved this European Supercup, having participated in the final of the Cup Winners’ Cup won in May.
During this 1999-2000 season, they entered the history of the Roman club by achieving the scudetto-Italian Cup double. The Portuguese then left in the summer of 2000 for Parma as part of the arrival in Rome of Hernan Crespo in a record transfer for the time (56 million euros).
Conceiçao has ‘learned a lot’
Conceiçao only stayed there for a year before joining Inter Milan, the club he will challenge on Wednesday at San Siro. In the Nerazzurro jersey, the Portuguese international winger has not expanded his record despite a star squad including Clarence Seedorf or Ronaldo.
“I was injured when I arrived (at Inter, editor’s note), I was not as strong as at Lazio or Parma, but those are still good memories,” he admitted on Tuesday evening. arriving at San Siro.
His path then briefly crossed that of Inzaghi for a few months at Lazio, in 2003-04, before he returned to Porto, his heart club.
The current 48-year-old Dragons coach does not hide how much his years in Serie A counted in his training as a coach.
“With the different coaches I had, playing with huge players and competing in the best championship in the world at the time, I learned a lot,” he said two years ago.
Physical and disciplined, the football that Conceiçao instills in his teams is reminiscent of that of Atlético Madrid by Argentinian Diego Simeone, also a former Laziale teammate.
This has made him a formidable opponent for Italian clubs since he sat on the bench at FC Porto in 2017.
His Dragons emerged victorious once morest AS Roma in the round of 16 of C1 (2019) then once morest Juventus (2021) at the same stage of the competition.
– A milestone for Inzaghi –
And last season, his FC Porto did it once more by finishing ahead of AC Milan in the group stage of C1 before dismissing … Lazio, in the play-off for the knockout stages of the Europa League.
Simone Inzaghi is therefore warned: a great challenge awaits him, once morest a fine connoisseur of the Italian game, if he wants to pass the eighth stage for the first time in C1, following two failures with Lazio once morest Bayern Munich there are two years (1-4, 1-2) and Inter Milan once morest Liverpool last season (0-2, 1-0).
“I find Sergio with pleasure, we shared important victories,” Inzaghi said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“As a coach, he is doing great things with a technical and physical game and a strong team that remains on ten wins in a row,” he added.
While the Nerazzurri are colossally behind (15 points) over Naples in the race for the scudetto, Inzaghi will have to confirm his talent for the cuts to pass the disappointment on to the tifosi and the leaders.
He certainly retained the Italian Super Cup at the expense of AC Milan (3-0) in January and can do the same with the Italian Cup, with semi-finals scheduled for April once morest Juventus. But at 46, perhaps the time has come to also earn stripes in Europe, once morest an opponent less upscale than Bayern or Liverpool.