When Inter traveled to Stadio Olimpico to face-off against Lazio towards the end of 1988-89 season, it was certainly tale of two different teams. Inter, had already secured the Scudetto after beating Napoli 2-1 at San Siro the week before with four games left in the season and had an almost perfect season thus far, losing only one game. Lazio on the other hand, were struggling throughout the season and found themselves out of European competition spots and fighting to avoid relegation for most of the season.
After finishing fifth place in year before, Inter in 1988-89 season retained Giovanni Trapattoni as manager and invested in the squad by acquiring the German duo of Andreas Brehme and Lothar Matthaus. The team also lost Alessandro Altobelli in the summer after a long and illustrious career with the Nerazzurri and he was replaced by Argentinian striker Ramon Diaz who joined the team after a stint with Fiorentina. Trapattoni repaid the faith team showed in him by guiding a dominant Inter side that went seventeen rounds without a loss and leading the team to it’s thirteenth Scudetto.
Inter started the match with capocannoniere Aldo Serena on the bench. Walter Zenga in goal, Andreas Brehme, Riccardo Ferri, Giuseppe Bergomi, Andrea Mandrolini in defense, Gianfranco Matteoli, Nicola Berti, Lothar Matthaus, Pietro Fanna and Alessandro Bianchi in the middle of the pitch and Ramon Diaz the lone striker. Lazio had an attacking line-up with all four attackers in the squad starting, Gustavo Dezotti, Paolo Di Canio, Antonio Rizzolo, and leading goal scorer Ruben Sosa. Valerio Fiori in goal, Marco Monti, Paolo Beruatto, Angelo Gregucci, Massimo Piscedda in defense and midfield duo of Antonio Acerbis and Claudio Sclosa.
As the game started, Inter came out attacking, keeping most of the possession and creating number of scoring chances in the process. Lazio primarily played on the counter and also had their fair share of scoring opportunities, but Zenga managed to parry them away. Despite being in control majority of the match, Inter conceded the first goal of the match to Lazio in second half from a Ruben Sosa corner-kick which Gustavo Dezotti headed into the top right corner. Crowd was stunned at the Olimpico as the relegation fighting Lazio managed to get a 1-0 lead at home against Scudetto winners, Inter.
With nothing to play for in the league except pride of the team, Nerazzurri captain Giuseppe Bergomi rallied his side and led the comeback as he drew score level at the sixty-eight minute mark with a screamer from outside the penalty area. Following a cross from the right wing, the ball was headed down towards Bergomi who took advantage of being completely unmarked and struck the ball on the volley, the ball flew past Fiori like a missile into the top left corner of the goal, silencing the home crowd.
The emphatic manner in which Inter tied the game, gave them momentum as the game went into the latter stages. Lazio looked demoralized but kept fighting on, until goal-keeper Fiori made a catastrophic error and bobbled a simple pass from a defender straight to an on-rushing Ramon Diaz who scored the second goal of the match with an empty net. Completely demoralized by the sudden change of momentum, Lazio had given up. Inter continued to assert themselves and not sitting on their laurels, scored a third goal as Nicola Berti made a run into the box, beating multiple Lazio defenders in the process and crossed the ball to the middle where Diaz scored his second goal of the match, giving Inter a 3-1 victory at the Olimpico.
