This Week In Lazio History: June 23-29

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Between June 23-29, Lazio won in European tournaments, fought to reach a national final, drew a playoff, and won both the Fornari Cup as well as the Cup of the Alps.
Matches of the Week
Date: Sunday, June 24, 1923 Venue: Campo Oncino, Torre Annunziata Fixture: Savoia Lazio 3-3, Southern Division Final, First Leg Lazio draw against Savoia in the first leg of the Southern Division Final. The Biancocelesti can still reach the National final.
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Date: Sunday, June 23, 1929
Venue: Stadio San Siro, Milan Fixture: Lazio Napoli 2-2, National Division, 8th place Playoff Playoff for first ever single Serie A ends in draw so rematch needed but more surprises were on the way
Date: Sunday, June 26, 1932
Venue: Campo Testaccio, Rome Fixture: Roma Lazio 0-3, Coppa Fornari Final Lazio beat Roma for the first time in the Coppa Fornari final with a Fantoni I brace and Malatesta.
Date: Sunday, June 27, 1937 Venue: Stadio PNF, Rome Fixture: Lazio Hungaria 3-2, Round of 16, Central European Cup Lazio go 3-0 up and then resist the visitor's attempt at a comeback.
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Date: Saturday, June 27, 2020 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Fiorentina 2-1 A goal by Luis Alberto eight minutes from time gives Lazio win and hope
Match In Focus
Date: Friday, June 25, 1971 Venue: St. Jakob Stadium, Basel Fixture: Basel Lazio 1-3, Cup of the Alps Final
Unknown to the players, club, new manager, and fans – this is where the glory started.
It had been an awful season. President Umberto Lenzini and manager Juan Carlos Lorenzo had argued all year over basically everything and the team suffered the consequences. Lazio had finished 15th which meant relegation.
Lenzini had already chosen Tommaso Maestrelli as new manager for the following season but at the end of the current season they had to play the Cup of the Alps and for this competition Bob Lovati took over.
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This was the 11th edition of the cup. It was a competition between Italian and Swiss sides. This year eight teams took part, divided into two mixed groups. The A Group was made up of Lazio, Sampdoria, Lugano and Winterthur. The B Group had Varese, Verona, Basel and Lausanne. The formula was that each team played the foreign team in their group twice (so no matches between Italians). The highest-placed Italian and Swiss teams would then qualify for the final. The points were calculated from the points from the four matches added to the goals scored.
Lazio had reached the final, winning three games and drawing one. Their opponents were Basel, the holders of the cup as they had won the past two editions. They were considered a decent team, had some good players in Karl Odermatt, Walter Balmer, and Peter Ramseier, and had a highly respected manager in German Helmut Benthaus (who would later win the Bundesliga with Stuttgart in 1984). They had come second in the Swiss league (would also win it the following year) and reached the Last 16 in the European Cup (lost to eventual winners Ajax).
The Biancocelesti scored early with Pierpaolo Manservisi but the Swiss equalised towards the end of the first half. Despite a referee, who clearly had eyesight problems, Giorgio Chinaglia scored a brace and Lazio won the cup.
A great satisfaction for the club after a difficult season. It was certainly not the European Cup or UEFA Cup but it held some prestige at the time. The Biancocelesti had performed well and the win was given great emphasis in the local and national media.
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Serie B awaited but with today's triumph, the new manager Maestrelli and President Lenzini's promise not to sell Chinaglia to Juventus the future looked brighter. And it certainly was.
In Memory: Renato Ziaco
The 1973-74 scudetto, as we all know, was made possible thanks to a wild and talented bunch of players managed by the maestro Tommaso Maestrelli. But, behind the scenes, there were also others who made that miracle possible. Among these we must certainly place Renato Ziaco, legendary doctor of that team.
Renato Ziaco was born in Rome on February 20, 1927. At 23 he graduated in Medicine with specialisation in orthopaedics. In 1960 he was part of the medical unit at the Olympic Games. In 1961 he was called by Lazio to substitute Professor Domenico Bolognese. Ziaco worked for the Biancocelesti for 25 years. He was not just a doctor, he was a psychologist and an innovator. The team went to him not only when they were injured but also when they simply needed a word of advice or encouragement. He was able to magically cure players who thought they would never play again, or others who overnight suddenly became available even if it had seemed impossible the day before. Once he even went on the bench as manager. In 1963 Juan Carlos Lorenzo could not sit on the bench during matches due to the fact that he was not Italian, and a couple of times when Bob Lovati was sick or suspended, it was Ziaco who had given the tactical orders.
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Ziaco was one of those who was not able to celebrate on May 12, 1974. He was performing surgery on Gigi Martini's fractured shoulder. He was also the first to notice that Tommaso Maestrelli was not well, and the one who desperately tried to save Luciano Re Cecconi after he was shot.
In the early 1980s after the Totonero scandal, he briefly left the Lazio medical unit, only to return when Giorgio Chinaglia became president. On January 7 1985, he slipped on the icy track at the Olimpico and fractured a rib. At the hospital they realised he had cancer. He died on June 25 of the same year.
Renato Ziaco was a heroic, legendary character, a true gentleman and Lazio supporter.
Birthdays This Week
Alessandro Varini, 24-26-1900, forward, Italy, 66 appearances, 12 goals (1914-25)
Pedro Rizzetti, 25-6-1907, midfielder, Brazil, 45 appearances (1931-34)
Pietro Adorni, 25-6-1949, defender, Italy, 52 appearances (1966-69)
Vincenzo Gasperi, 27-6-1937, defender, Italy, 149 appearances, 6 goals (1961-66)
Piero Cucchi, 27-6-1939, midfielder, Italy, 71 appearances, 4 goals (1967-69)
Pierluigi Pagni, 28-6-1939, defender, Italy, 185 appearances, 1 goal (1960-68)