Lazio battle hard but lose

Dag Jenkins
Jun 11, 2023
4 min read

Season 1949-50

3rd place final, Latin Cup

Sunday, June 11, 1950

Estádio Municipal, Lisbon

Atlético Madrid-Lazio 2-1

The Colchoneros edge Lazio in a match dominated by regulation confusion, sendings off and fights

The season so far

Lazio had finished Serie A in 4th place. Now Lazio had the honour of playing in the Latin Cup. It was a tournament for the Champions of France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Lazio had got in due to Juventus, Milan and Inter (1st, 2nd and 3rd) renouncing because many of their players were involved in the World Cup in Brazil. This was the second edition. The reigning champions were Barcelona.

The Lazio manager for this event was not Mario Sperone who was busy with Italian Federation duties but Alfredo Notti helped by technical director Luciano Ramella.

Lazio had added a few players to take to Portugal: goalkeeper Giorgio Fioravanti and midfielder Ernesto Sandroni both on temporary loan from Venezia plus forward Guglielmo Trevisan on loan from Triestina.

The other clubs participating were French Champions Bordeaux, Portuguese Champions Benfica and Spanish Champions Atlético Madrid. A competitive field.

In the semi-final on June 10 Lazio were beaten 0-3 by Benfica. In the other semi-final Bordeaux beat Atlético Madrid 4-2. This meant Lazio would play the Colchoneros for 3-4th place.

Lazio and Atletico Madrid had already played each other on June 4 in La Coruña in the Trofeo Teresa Herrera and Lazio had won 3-1. Lazio thus became the first non-Spanish club to win the prestigious trophy. Lazio would take part again in 1993, 1998 and 2000 but without winning.

The match

A sunny day in the Portuguese capital attracted a decent crowd of 25,000 to the Stadio Municipal.

Lazio were missing goalkeeper Lucidio Sentimenti (at World Cup) and defenders Romolo Alzani, Zeffiro Furiassi and Leandro Remondini (at World Cup) plus midfielder Flavio Cecconi while the Spaniards were without goalkeeper Marcel Domingo who had a temperature plus midfielder Alfonso Silva (at World Cup).

The game between the two sides a week earlier had seen several brawls and 3 sendings off (2 for Lazio) so no-one was expecting a particularly friendly game today.

The game started with some confusion. Aldo Puccinelli was told by the referee he was not eligible to play as he had received a red card in the semi-final. By the time Lazio had a substitute ready the teams were already seven minutes into the game and Lazio a goal down but first things first.

The two teams had obviously not forgotten the animosity from the week earlier and the game was immediately rough.

With Lazio in ten men the Colchoneros scored after only three minutes. Youngster Agustín Sanchez Quesada put a good ball forward to Larbi Ben Barak who from about ten metres out hit a bullet-like shot past Giorgio Fioravanti, 1-0.

In the 7th minute Lazio were back to eleven men as Mario Magrini finally trotted on in place of the excluded Puccinelli.

Lazio looked more confident but were punished almost immediately. In the 8th minute Ben Barak broke away in midfield, beat Francesco Antonazzi and set up Adrián Escudero who had a simple task to put the Colchoneros 2-0 up.

In the 13th minute the ruggedness got out of hand and both Magrini and Henry Carlsson were sent off for fighting.

Lazio spurred on by the local crowd pushed forward to try to reopen the game. If it was a difficult situation, in the 32nd minute it got worse. Sergio Piacentini got a yellow card for a not particularly bad foul but then received a red for dissent. The Lazio players in protest even left the field for few minutes but were then persuaded to continue.

Back on the pitch Lazio then decided to pull Romano Penzo back in midfield for more balance and generously continued to attack. The Biancocelesti however were never able to seriously threaten goalkeeper Vicente Dauder. Half time Atletico 2 Lazio 0.

In the second half, despite the numerical inferiority, Lazio had prolonged spells of pressure. Their efforts were rewarded in the 74th minute when Vittorio Sentimenti resolved a scramble in the box with a powerful finish, 2-1.

Lazio at this point doubled their efforts and had chances with Sentimenti again and Enrique Flamini but were unsuccessful. It must be said too that the referee turned a blind eye on at least a couple of fouls by the Rojiblancos defenders inside the box. In the 88th minute the "Indios" were also reduced to nine men as Escudero was given his marching orders but it was too late. Final score Atletico Madrid 2 Lazio 1.

A valiant performance by the Romans considering the circumstances. They started a man less, trailed after three minutes, went two down just as they were reorganising their setup and then played the last hour nine men against ten. Despite this, the Biancocelesti battled hard and could easily have drawn the game. Lazio left the field heads high and were applauded off the field by the Lisbon crowd.

Who played for Atletico Madrid

Dauder, Tinte, Lesmes, Olmeida, Riera, Farias, Estruch, Ben Barak, Carlsson, Agustin, Escudero

Manager: Herrera

Who played for Lazio

Fioravanti, Antonazzi, Spurio, Piacentini, Montanari, Sentimenti III, Magrini (from 7'), Penzo, Höfling, Flamini, Nyers