This Week In Lazio History: October 21-27 | OneFootball

This week in Lazio history there were some important wins in all competitions, Fabrizio Di Mauro’s Derby and we also remember Leonardo Siliato, President of the club’s first silverware.

Matches of the Week

Date: Sunday, October 23, 1994 Venue: Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Genoa Fixture: Genoa Lazio 1-2 Lazio stage comeback in the last fifteen minutes to conquer the Ferraris thanks to Negro and Signori.

Date: Sunday, October 24, 1976 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Bologna 3-0 The Biancocelesti crush Bologna. The new course under Luis Vinicio seems to be going in the right direction.

Date: Wednesday, October 25, 2000 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Shakhtar Donetsk 5-1, Champions League After missing the impossible Lazio score five second-half goals and qualify for the next round.

Date: Sunday, October 26, 2003 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Bologna 2-1 Heaven, hell and heaven again in the last ten minutes.

Date: Thursday, October 27, 2022 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Midtjylland 2-1, Europa League Lazio partly avenge Danish humiliation and head into the last game top of the group.

Match In Focus

Date: Sunday, October 24, 1993 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Roma Lazio 1-1

The last time either Lazio or Roma had won a derby was on March 18, 1990, when Roma beat Lazio at the Stadio Flaminio. Since then, six consecutive draws, mostly 1-1. Will there be a winner this time round?

If one just commented on the first half it would be difficult to determine if the teams even wanted to win at all. What they did want however was to physically hurt each other as much as possible. In the end, there were seven yellow cards. A couple of players did try to do something to break the stalemate. Sinisa Mihajlovic tried a shot after a Lazio clearance but it went just wide. Roma did actually score in the 34th minute but Giovanni Piacentini’s cross for Abel Balbo was considered to have gone over the byline. A minute later Lazio’s only chance of the first half came with a Fabrizio Di Mauro-Beppe Signori-Gigi Casiraghi play that allowed the Biancoceleste centre forward to shoot but Lorieri parried. After a Thomas Haessler free-kick well saved by Luca Marchegiani, that was the end of the first half.

In the second half, after 15 minutes of boredom, Roma surprisingly scored. Corner for the Giallorossi, Haessler crossed towards the centre, Marchegiani cleared but was positioned a little too far forward, the ball arrived outside the box and Piacentini with an improbable volley put Roma ahead.

Lazio at this point woke up, took off a defender (Mauro Bonomi), put in an extra midfield player (Dario Marcolin), and assaulted the Roma fort. In the 78th minute free kick for the Biancocelesti. Marcolin to Cristiano Bergodi who crossed, Casiraghi headed the ball back to the centre of the penalty box hoping there would be someone. There was. It was Fabrizio Di Mauro, a former Roma player, who volleyed the ball under Marco Lanna’s legs for Lazio’s equalizer.

The teams then made sure nothing else happened. Seventh consecutive draw in a derby.

In Memory: Leonardo Siliato

Leonardo Siliato was the first President to win a trophy at Lazio: the Coppa Italia 1958.

He was born on April 4 1896 in Genoa. As many did (or had to) he joined the Fascist Party in the 1930s and was in charge of worker’s welfare and rector of the Genoa Province from 1929 to 1931. He was CEO of Ansaldo, one of Italy’s oldest and most important engineering companies, and Vice President of Liguria Calcio.

On November 4 1956, Lazio’s internal auditor, Aldo Giuliani, announced that the club had a debt of over 800 million lire, an enormous amount for the time. Costantino Tessarolo, club President, announced that Mario Vaseli, who had financed the club many times, had decided he was not going to fork out any more money and that the group headed by Remo Zenobi had only found 20 million lire out of the necessary 60 for the urgent expenses. In this dramatic situation, on December 23, Siliato and the entrepreneur Antonio Alecce took over the ownership of Lazio with the former becoming President and the latter financier and consultant.

The financial situation did not change and on March 23, 1957, Siliato resigned. He sold Arne Selmosson to Inter in order to cash in much-needed money but the protests by the board and fans blocked the operation. A plan to cut costs and the attempt to increase the donations by the board were successful and Siliato stayed. But Lazio were still on the verge of bankruptcy and there seemed to be no future, testified also by the fans’ disillusionment as Lazio-Udinese had only 1800 spectators. Siliato however was ambitious and on April 5 he signed Fulvio Bernardini as the new manager.

But on July 6, 1958, some news came that shocked the Lazio world. Selmosson had been sold to Roma for 135 million lire. The fans staged a public protest and a few members of the board tried to convince Selmosson to refuse the transfer. But there was nothing anybody could do.

Lazio however then won their first silverware: the 1958 Coppa Italia. Having won their group in June-July eliminating Roma and Napoli, Lazio reached the final beating Juventus in the semis, and a Maurilio Prini goal in the final at the Olimpico against Fiorentina gave Lazio their first trophy in their history.

Siliato, tired and ill, threw in the towel on July 25, 1959, and Andrea Ercoli took his place.

Leonardo Siliato must be remembered as the one who took over in really dark times. He did his best, fuelled by his love for the club, to find solutions in a very difficult situation.

He died in Rome on October 24, 1976.

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