The Brazilian Ronaldo completed an emphatic victory in this all-Italian final in Paris last night, a triumph marred only by the late sending off of the Nigerian Taribo West.
A capacity crowd turned this corner of Paris into a passionate Little Italy for the night but there was disappointment for some of the neutrals when the teams were announced before the entry of the sides to firecrackers and flares. Benoit Cauet, the former Paris St Germain midfielder, was missing from Inter's multinational starting line-up.
Both coaches had clearly put their faith in experience, Lazio's Sven Goran Eriksson hoping his Italian international striker Pierluigi Casiraghi would compensate for the loss of the injured Alen Boksic, while Gigi Simoni opted for two 31-year-olds, the former Lazio midfielder Aron Winter and the Chilean striker Ivan Zamorano.
Zamorano's height and bulk were to provide the foil for the vivid, accelerating Ronaldo, whose first act was to dust himself down in the second minute after being fouled and then taking the free-kick from 35 yards which soared over. Inter's next attacking contribution, only a couple of minutes later, was to prove startlingly more precise. Lazio's marking was correspondingly imprecise as Inter were allowed to leisurely build up in midfield and supply Javier Zanetti, who had time to judge his next move from near the halfway line. The Argentinian's chip found Zamorano utterly unguarded and the tall Chilean bore down the left channel on Luca Marchegiani before clipping past the goalkeeper into the far corner.
Inter demonstrated much greater prowess in attack when they manoeuvred the ball to the by-line, where Zanetti pulled back, Youri Djorkaeff dummied and Ronaldo paused before shooting from the edge of the area. Marchegiani was comprehensively beaten by the glorious strike but the ball rebounded from the far angle.
Eight minutes before half-time Inter threatened again to punish Lazio laxity when Djorkaeff won possession, supplied Winter on the right and the resulting cross was returned to the Frenchman, whose diving header soared over.
A wasteful miss shortly before half-time by Lazio's captain Diego Fuser proved ominous for his team. Within eight minutes of the second half Zamorano threatened again with a shot from 12 yards that hit the inside of the near post and rolled tantalisingly across the goal before spinning out for a goal-kick.
The Chilean held his head in his hands but six minutes later he was to join the exulting Inter players as they celebrated a wonderful strike by Zanetti. Zamorano again played an influential part, heading down Ronaldo's free-kick from the right for Zanetti to unleash an instant unstoppable shot that entered via the far post.
That owed nothing to luck but Inter's third goal, after 68 minutes, had Lazio bemoaning ill fortune as the Brazilian appeared to be offside when he received Francesco Moriero's pass before rounding Marchegiani cleverly and stroking home.
Internazionale: Pagliuca; Fresi; Colonnesse, West, Zanetti; Winter, Ze Elias, Simeone, Djorkaeff; Ronaldo, Zamorano.
Lazio: Marchegiani; Grandoni, Nesta, Negro, Favalli; Fuser, Venturin, Jugovic, Nedved; Mancini, Casiraghi.
