This Week In Lazio History: December 22-28

For Christmas week we remember some important games and wins in Lazio history particularly a 2-2 in nine men at Palermo in 2007.

Date: Sunday, December 22, 2019
Venue: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Fixture: Juventus Lazio 1-3, Super Coppa
Just a few weeks after beating Juventus at the Olimpico 3-1, Lazio do it again, this time in the Supercoppa final.

Date: Sunday, December 23, 1973
Venue: Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi, Verona
Fixture: Verona Lazio 0-1
Lazio suffer but win with a Garlaschelli goal and now top Serie A

Date: Sunday, December 23, 1995
Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Fixture: Lazio Atalanta 5-1
Winter opens and closes the scoring as Lazio bury Atalanta with goals

Date: Wednesday, December 26, 2018
Venue: Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, Bologna
Fixture: Bologna Lazio 0-2
Luiz Felipe and Captain Senad Lulic secure a comfortable Lazio victory in the match that saw the Inzaghi brothers clash for the first time as managers.

Date: Sunday, December 27, 1931
Venue: Stadio di Corso Marsiglia, Turin
Fixture: Juventus Lazio 1-2
Lazio score two goals in the opening seven minutes to claim a shock win

Date: Sunday, December 23, 2007
Venue: Stadio Renzo Barbera, Palermo
Fixture: Palermo Lazio 2-2

An uncharacteristically cold afternoon brought about 25,000 spectators to the beautifully located ground at the foot of Monte Pellegrino.

The first phases were all Palermo with the front three combining neatly. Lazio however were balanced tactically and covered the field well. The Rosanero attacked but had difficulty being truly dangerous.

Palermo’s pressure was interrupted in the 26th minute when a Fabio Firmani close range shot was saved by Federico Agliardi. Then the Rosaneri piled forward again and took the lead in the 34th minute. A Miccoli freekick from the right into the area was headed in by Fabio Simplicio. Palermo 1 Lazio 0.

Lazio reacted and had two shots just over the bar, first with Stephen Makinwa and then Aleksandar Kolarov. The first half ended with a bit of friction with Fabio Vignaroli threatening Ciro Capuano for not having put the ball out when he had been down injured. Halftime score Palermo 1 Lazio 0. All in all, a deserved lead for the Sicilian Eagles. 

The second half had barely started when Palermo scored again. In the 46th minute an assist by Miccoli put Amauri one-on-one with Marco Ballotta, the Brazilian made no mistake with a cool, left-footed lob. Palermo 2 Lazio 0. The worst possible re-start for Lazio, things were looking grim.

Miccoli then almost made it three but Ballotta saved two attempts.

Lazio tried to change things making two substitutions, in the 56th minute Igli Tare replaced Makinwa and in the 59th Simone Del Nero came on for Vignaroli.

Following the second replacement Lazio immediately pulled one back. Firmani found himself unmarked in the area on a Kolarov assist and beat Agliardi with a low right foot. Palermo 2 Lazio 1.

At this point Palermo concentrated on maintaining the lead and their midfield dropped back at least 15-20 metres. In the 69th minute Guidolin took off forward Cavani and put on another defensive midfielder Aimo Diana.

In the 75th minute came a key episode in the match. Sebastiano Siviglia fouled Amauri in the area on a goal scoring opportunity, red card for the defender and penalty to Palermo. Amauri stepped up to virtually close the game but fired his shot over the bar. A lifeline for Lazio but still with a mountain to climb.

In the 77th minute Rossi played his last card throwing on Lionel Scaloni for Christian Manfredini.

Four minutes later Lazio, despite the numerical inferiority, managed to equalise. Lorenzo De Silvestri powered down the right and squared to Tare in the middle, the Albanian’s low left foot went in near the post. Palermo 2 Lazio 2. An extraordinary turnaround in events.

Palermo were in shock and could not get a winner even when Lazio remained in 9 men. In the 89th minute De Silvestri was sent off for a second yellow and the referee then gave three minutes of injury time. The Lazio defence however stood firm and brought back a very welcome point back to Rome. Final score Palermo 2 Lazio 2.

Palermo were extremely disappointed about not closing out the match but Lazio had battled hard and never given up, in what at times looked like a certain defeat.

Jenő Löwy was born on November 16, 1905, in Budapest. He was a left back, sometimes midfielder, and he arrived in Italy to play for Lucchese in 1925. The year after he signed for Lazio, where he became player-manager.

The 1925-26 season saw Lazio arrive third in the Regional Championship. Despite that fact that for many years the Biancocelesti had been the best team in the region, only the first two teams went to play for the first national championship that was to be more similar to Serie A. Lazio were forced to play in the First Division, Group D. To go back to the national championship the Biancocelesti were forced to win their division. They did, not without difficulty, with a one-point advantage over Libertas Bari. They only lost three games, all away from home, and won the other 15. At the end there was another tournament to determine who would be First Division champion, but it was a totally honorific title of no real meaning and Lazio went in demotivated and did not do very well. But there had been a more important objective and that had been reached.

That season Löwy made 23 appearances with four goals.

In 1927 he signed for Makkabea Bratislava and later went on to play for 33 FC (Obuda, Budapest), Újpesti and Budai 11, also both from Budapest.

He died in Budapest on December 28, 1967.

• Per Bredesen, 22/12/1930, midfielder, Norway, 93 appearances, 19 goals (1952-55)
• Felice Pulici, 22/12/1945, goalkeeper, Italy, 200 appearances (1972-78, 1981-81)
• Marino Furlani, 23/12/1906, midfielder, Italy, 122 appearances, 4 goals (1928-34)
• Marcelo Salas, 24/12/1974, forward, Chile, 117 appearances, 48 goals (1998-01)
• Eddy Onazi, 25/12/1992, midfielder, Nigeria, 110 appearances, 7 goals (2011-16)
• Aldo Puccinelli, 25/12/1920, forward, Italy, 350 appearances, 80 goals (1940-43, 1945-55)
• Stefano Chiodi, 26/12/1956, forward, Italy, 40 appearances, 6 goals (1980-83)
• Giuseppe Fioranti, 26/12/1888, midfielder/forward, Italy, 103 appearances, 46 goals (1909-22)
• Anfilogino Guarisi, 26/12/1905, forward, Brazil, 135 appearances, 42 goals (1931-38)
• Bruno Camolese, 27/12/1914, midfielder, Italy, 120 appearances, 18 goals (1935-40)
• Fulvio Bernardini, 28/12/1905, goalkeeper/forward, Italy, 100 appearances 73 goals (1919-1926)
• Primo Sentimenti V, 28/12/1926, midfielder, Italy, 200 appearances, 9 goals (1950-57)

This Article Was Written by Dag Jenkins & Simon Basten from Lazio Stories. More Information on the Above Matches and Players can be found on LazioStories.com.