This Week In Lazio History: July 28 – August 3 | OneFootball

The week of July 28-August 3 saw Lazio win the prestigious Amsterdam Tournament, win at Anfield as well as Brighton and Southampton, and we remember 1936 Olympic Gold winner Giuseppe Baldo.

Matches of the Week

Date: Saturday, July 28, 2007 Venue: St. Mary’s Stadium, Southampton Fixture: Southampton Lazio 2-5, Pre-Season Friendly Lazio play a perfect match and score five in Southampton with braces from Mauri and Rocchi plus a Pandev goal

Date: Wednesday, July 29, 2020 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Brescia 2-0 Lazio win the last home game with goals by Correa and European top scorer Immobile who edges nearer to the Golden Boot.

Date: Tuesday, July 30, 2002 Venue: Anfield Road, Liverpool Fixture: Liverpool Lazio 0-1, Pre-Season Friendly With a César goal Lazio win at Anfield.

Date: Sunday, July 31, 2016 Venue: Falmer Stadium, Brighton Fixture: Brighton & Hove Albion Lazio 0-1, Pre-Season Friendly A promising game by English midfielder Morrison gives Lazio the win.

Date: Saturday, July 31, 1999 Venue: Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam Fixture: Lazio Atlético Madrid 3-1, Amsterdam Tournament Lazio win but struggle against Colchonero reserves.

Match in focus

Date: Sunday, August 1, 1999 Venue: Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam Fixture: Ajax Lazio 2-3, Amsterdam Tournament

A crowd of 30,000 turned up for this summer friendly. Lazio were keen to avenge a 0-5 defeat to Ajax three years earlier but more importantly to play international opposition before their Europe Super Cup clash with Manchester United on August 27.

The Amsterdam Tournament was first held in 1975 to celebrate the 700 years of the foundation of the city of Amsterdam (1275-1975). It ran from 1975 to 1993 and from 1999 to 2009. The formula consisted of four teams, Ajax plus 3 others. In the first game, played the day before, Lazio had defeated Atletico Madrid 3-1.

Lazio started strongly, with Alen Boksic in particular showing he had already hit form. After 15 minutes they were ahead, a cross by Beppe Favalli was headed in by Boksic. Ajax 0 Lazio 1.

Lazio dominated the first half hour. The Biancocelesti were first denied what looked like a clear penalty on Pavel Nedved and then awarded one in the 20th minute for a foul on Simone Inzaghi. It was Boksic once again who was the protagonist, putting Inzaghi one-on-one with the keeper who then pulled him down. The specialist Sinisa Mihajlovic put it away to double Lazio’s lead. Ajax 0 Lazio 2.

At this point Lazio relaxed and the hosts came back into the game. The “Joden” were unwilling to slump to another heavy defeat after the 1-4 against Santos. They pulled one back in the 39th minute when Aron Winter teed up Richard Knopper whose cracking left footer made it 1-2. A minute later the Dutch had a Shota Arveladze goal disallowed for offside. Ajax also started to try several shots from the long range but Luca Marchegiani was alert.

Half time Ajax 1 Lazio 2. The Romans had played very well for 30 minutes but then retreated too much. One problem was that Sebastian Veron was playing too deep, in an area of the field usually presided by Mihajlovic.

The second half started with a dazzling move by Boksic. The “Alien” sent the defenders crazy with a never-ending series of twists and turns and then put a perfect pass to Nedved who hit the post.

The game was fast, competitive and entertaining with end-to-end moves. Kennet Andersson had come on for Inzaghi in the 46th minute and almost scored immediately. Then in the 59th minute Lazio scored on a counter attack. A glorious long ball by Mihajlovic was run onto by Kennet Andersson who beat Grim again. Ajax 1 Lazio 3.

The fact that Boksic had gone off (56th minute, replaced by defender Fernando Couto) meant that for the last half hour Lazio were a bit squashed back in their own half with Andersson too isolated up front.

In the 71st minute the “Spearmen” pulled one back with Knopper. Ajax 2 Lazio 3. The Dutch forward almost got a hat-trick a minute later but his shot hit the crossbar.

The last fifteen minutes saw the home side push for an equaliser but in the end it was Lazio who came closest to scoring. Fernando Couto had an outrageous back heel effort cleared off the line (or maybe even over – this being pre-goal line technology).

The game ended 3-2 for Lazio. A deserved win for the Biancocelesti who had been the superior team for most of the match. Positive indications had come especially in attack where Boksic had been devastating and had paired up well with Inzaghi. There were still more than three weeks to the game with the Red Devils of Manchester and to the beginning of Serie A but Lazio seemed to be on the right track.

Lazio won the Amsterdam tournament with 12 points ahead of Santos 9, Ajax 3 and Atlético Madrid 2.

In Memory: Giuseppe Baldo

In 1934 Italy won the second edition of the World Cup, the first to be played in Europe.

So far in International football, the most important competition was the Olympic Games. The World Cup was a new thing and due to the difficulty of sending players backwards and forwards across the Atlantic on a ship, not easy to organise. But the Olympics were different. Federations were happy to send their players wherever it was held since the prestige was enormous.

Uruguay had won the World Cup in 1930 but also Olympic Gold in 1924 and 1928. They had refused to participate in the 1934 World Cup because a number of European nations had refused to play the first edition so in retaliation they did not participate. They were not present in the 1936 Olympics either, but Italy, fresh World Champions were, even if with a completely different team due to the fact that they were supposed to be amateurs. The solution was to only call up those players who were university students, so they did not have to be paid.

Italy reached the final beating the USA, Japan and Norway and faced Austria. The Azzurri won 2-1 in extra time. There were two Lazio players in the team: Francesco Gabriotti and Giuseppe Baldo.

Baldo was born in Piombino Dese near Padua on July 27, 1914. He signed for Lazio in 1935 and stayed for seven seasons playing 187 games (170 in Serie A, 11 in Coppa Italia and 6 in the Mitropa Cup) scoring 8 goals in Serie A and 2 in Coppa Italia.

He was a great midfield player. He was tough and had a good reading of the game. In the 1936-37 season Lazio achieved second place, one of the rare times this has happened in their history (the others being 1994-95, 1998-99 and 2022-23) and he was the player with the most appearances.

He died on July 31, 2007, at Montecatini Terme, the last of the 1936 Olympians to pass away.

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