This Week In Lazio History: December 16-22 | OneFootball

This week in Lazio history we remember some fantastic wins, another Caicedo last second goal, the 2019 Supercoppa and the passing of Sinisa Mihajlovic.

Matches of the Week

Date: Sunday, December 17, 1995 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Sampdoria 6-3 Lazio win never in doubt in high scoring game thanks to Signori, Winter, Casiraghi and Fuser

Date: Sunday, December 18, 1966 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Inter 1-0 A splendid goal from D’Amato gives the Biancocelesti two points over the current champions

Date: Sunday, December 19, 1954 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Napoli 2-1 Hansen and Bredesen goals overturn Castelli’s opener

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 20, 2020 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Napoli 2-0 Lazio sweep away a demoralised Napoli thanks to Immobile and Luis Alberto

Match In Focus

Date: Monday, December 16, 2019 Venue: Sardegna Arena, Cagliari Fixture: Cagliari Lazio 1-2

This was probably one of the most exciting and dramatic games in Lazio’s history.

After an initial chance for Immobile in the 2nd minute, Cagliari went ahead in the 8th minute. Charis Lykogiannis’ throw in was headed towards the centre of the box by Joao Pedro and Giovanni Simeone anticipated a slow Francesco Acerbi and made it 1-0. Shock start for Lazio but the fans were confident there would be a rapid turnaround. Lazio however were mentally drained after the Juventus match and just could not get to grips with a very solid Cagliari team.

With two minutes to the end of the first half Lazio had their second opportunity. A Luis Alberto free kick crossed the entire Cagliari defence but Senad Lulic could not make any contact. A couple of minutes later Radja Nainggolan went off all alone on a counter attack, got past Acerbi pretty comfortably and was alone in front of Thomas Strakosha who miraculously saved the former Roma player’s shot. The subsequent corner saw Joao Pedro’s header again saved by the Lazio goalkeeper and the next corner would put Simeone in a position for a simple tap in but he somehow managed to send the ball wide

Lazio woke up in the second half and in the 50th minute two Immobile headers were saved on the line by the Cagliari defence. In the 73rd minute there was a comedy of errors. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic was clearly pushed inside the penalty box but the referee said play on, ball to Simeone in Lazio’s half who pulled down Manuel Lazzari, the players practically stopped waiting for the ref’s whistle but he again said play on, the ball went to Nainggolan who passed to Cagliari’s centre-forward unmarked in front of Strakosha but he kicked the ball over the crossbar. Four minutes later Joao Pedro had another chance but Acerbi blocked his effort.

The referee gave seven minutes of injury time, Lazio still had hope. Cagliari were on their knees and Lazio took advantage. In the 91st minute Acerbi crossed for Milinkovic-Savic, a Cagliari defender touched the ball with his hand but Luis Alberto was quicker than the ref and his volley gave Lazio an equaliser. Game over? No. Lazio continued to attack and there were several crosses in the penalty box that Cagliari had trouble controlling.

Could Lazio win this? It was the 97th minute. The ref gave an extra 30 seconds of injury time due to a Cagliari substitution. Luis Alberto’s long pass found Lazzari. His immediate cross was sent out of the penalty box by a Cagliari defender and Jony gained possession. His perfect cross was headed into the net by Felipe Caicedo. Lazio fans all over the world went crazy!!!

Lazio took the three points, their eighth consecutive win and were only three points behind the leaders.

In Memory: Sinisa Mihajlovic

Sinisa Mihajlovic was born in Vukovar in former Yugoslavia on February 20, 1969, he started his footballing career in the youth teams of Borovo where he grew up. He was particularly well known for his ability on free kicks. In 1986 he signed for Vojvodina where he played for two years before the big move to Red Star Belgrade.

Red Star had been keeping an eye on him for years and had failed to sign him when he was a teenager. Now at 21, Sinisa joined a club that had a number of interesting players such as Dejan Savicevic, Robert Prosinečki, Vladimir Jugovic and Darko Pancev. In his first season he won the European Cup and scored two decisive goals in the semi final against Bayern Munich. In his second year he won the Intercontinental Cup in the final against Colo Colo.

In the summer of 1992, he was about to go to Juventus but new Roma manager Vujadin Boskov convinced him to join the Giallorossi. It was not a good year for Roma, Mihajlovic was forced to play left back and did not play as well as he could. Boskov left after a season and in came Carletto Mazzone who continued to play Sinisa as left back. Another bad year.

An unhappy Mihajlovic was glad to join Sampdoria in 1994. Under manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, he started playing in central defence. Eriksson wanted to exploit Sinisa’s ability to build and organise play from the back. His long and precise passes to the forwards, especially to Roberto Mancini from his own half, were a trademark of that Sampdoria. Furthermore, Sinisa was great at free kicks and corners, other tools that Sampdoria used in abundance. He played for 4 seasons in Genoa, 128 total appearances and 15 goals.

After a year at Lazio, Eriksson and Mancini asked President Sergio Cragnotti to sign Mihajlovic, and Sinisa from being a great player turned into a legendary one. Pairing up with Alessandro Nesta at the centre of Lazio’s defence, allowed him a freedom of movement that became lethal at times. Goals and assists from spot kicks were trademarks of Eriksson’s Lazio. Every time there was a free kick or a corner, there was a scoring opportunity, which got even better with the arrival of Juan Sebastian Veron in 1999.

In his six years at Lazio, Sinisa played 193 games (126 in Serie A, 22 in Coppa Italia, 27 in Champions League, 9 in the UEFA Cup Winners Cup, 6 in the UEFA Cup, two in the Super Coppa finals and one UEFA Super Cup) and scored 33 goals (20 in Serie A, 6 in Coppa Italia, 6 in Champions League and one in the Super Coppa).

He won a scudetto, the Coppa Italia twice, an Italian Supercoppa, a UEFA Cup Winners Cup and a UEFA Super Cup.

His stay at Lazio however was at times difficult. He was booed by the fans for a while and got an 8-match ban for having spat at Adrian Mutu (the Romanian has never been a friend of Lazio’s and is well known to be as pleasant as sand in your underpants).Sinisa however won the fans back and became immensely popular, fans rising to their feet every time he took a corner. Lazio fans will also never forget that he scored Lazio’s first ever goal in Champions League (vs Bayer Leverkusen on September 14 1999), scored a hat trick on free kicks (vs Sampdoria on December 13 1998) and a memorable winning goal at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea on March 22 2000.

He was strong, had a great sense of position and was able to read the game like no other. What he lacked in defensive abilities, he made up for by being a playmaker who built Lazio’s game from the back. Often journalists used to ask him “who is better at free kicks, you or Roberto Carlos?” “He was good, very good, but I was better” he would always reply.

With the crumbling of Cragnotti’s financial empire, Mihajlovic left Lazio and joined Mancini at Inter. President Claudio Lotito had asked him to stay but Lazio could not afford to keep him. He played two years at Inter, though his contribution in the last season was minimal, after which he quit football.

He played 63 times for his country with 10 goals, 4 times for Yugoslavia before the civil war, 58 times for the Yugoslavian Federation and once for Serbia. He participated in the World Cup of 1998 and Euro 2000.

He then started his coaching career as assistant coach to Mancini at Inter where he won two scudetti and a Supercoppa. He then went on to be head coach at Bologna in 2008 replacing Daniele Arrigoni. He was sacked in April 2009. In December 2009 he was called to Catania and managed to keep them in Serie A the first year and obtain the club’s points record in the second.

He was chosen by Fiorentina in 2010. His first year was not a good one but he was confirmed, only to be sacked in November 2011. In 2012 he was the new head coach of Serbia but he failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup and came back to Italy to manage Sampdoria. He stayed for two years before joining Milan in 2015.

With Milan he did not do too badly and reached the final of the Coppa Italia but then following a string of bad results, he was sacked in April 2016.

In 2016 he managed Torino, doing very well in the first half of the season and not so well in the second half but was confirmed for the 2017-18 season only to be sacked in January. In July 2018 he became manager at Sporting Lisbon but was fired after just 9 days.

In January 2019 he substituted Pippo Inzaghi at Bologna and guided the club to safety. After being confirmed as manager he announced that he had leukaemia but he continued to manage the team. Bologna never reached exceptional heights but always had a safe journey in Serie A. After a bad start to the 2022-23 season and the return of the illness, the Bologna management decided to give the reins of the squad to Thiago Motta.

Sinisa died in Rome on December 15, 2022. A very sad day for all Lazio fans.

“A great Laziale, a warrior on the pitch and in life. His courage on the field was second only to what he showed in facing this serious illness”, said Claudio Lotito in a statement. “This warrior with a great heart will remain in the history of Lazio not only for having been Italian Champion, but for the message of hope he represented in facing difficulty right up until his last moments”.

Mihajlovic always remained a Lazio fan as he often stated in interviews. The last time he came to play Lazio as Bologna manager in August 2022, after the 2-1 defeat he was asked how upset he was and he replied that as a Lazio fan he was never as upset as losing against other teams.

Sinisa is now guiding Lazio’s defence in heaven alongside Giuseppe Wilson and under the guidance of Tommaso Maestrelli. Giorgio Chinaglia and Silvio Piola will be sure to benefit.

Birthdays This Week