January 12, 1975: Fiorentina Lazio 1-1
- Simon Basten
- 6 hours ago
- 7 min read
Should have won but almost lost
Lazio dominated the first part but wasted chances and Fiorentina came back, equalised, and missed a penalty
The season so far
The previous season Lazio had triumphantly won the scudetto. A fantastic campionato where once the Biancocelesti reached the top of the table in winter they never let go. It was going to be difficult to repeat the previous year. In the summer transfer window, President Umberto Lenzini refused to sell any of the first eleven players despite attempts from Torino to sign Luciano Re Cecconi and Milan with Giorgio Chinaglia. There were only some minor movements with the arrival of Roberto Badiani from Sampdoria and Pietro Ghedin in the autumn window from Fiorentina. Leaving Lazio were Pierpaolo Manservisi (Mantova), Ferruccio Mazzola (Sant’Angelo), Mario Facco (Avellino), Fausto Inselvini and the loan of Sergio Borgo to Foggia.
Coppa Italia in September saw Lazio lose two and draw two. They did not proceed to the second phase.
In Serie A, the Biancocelesti started well winning the first three games, but then they lost the lead with two points in the next three. By the end of the year they were second, three points behind Juventus. The first match of 1975 was Lazio vs Juve and the Biancocelesti won. Now they were only one point behind the Bianconeri.
The match: Sunday, January 12, 1975, Stadio Comunale, Florence
Lazio toyed too much with Fiorentina and nearly paid the price. That could be the summary of a match in which the Biancocelesti played cat and mouse until the mouse turned into a lion and the roles were reversed. Tommaso Maestrelli started Vincenzo D’Amico in place of the suspended Renzo Garlaschelli, while Fiorentina had no line-up problems.
The match began with Lazio on the front foot as early as the 4th minute, when Gigi Martini struck a long-range shot that Franco Superchi saved comfortably. Fiorentina responded through Giancarlo Antognoni, who crossed from the by-line for Walter Speggiorin, but the striker mistimed his header and sent the ball well over the crossbar.
In the 10th minute Lazio created their first real scoring chance: a fine cross from Luciano Re Cecconi found D’Amico, who struck the ball first time with the inside of his foot, sending it wide of the post with Superchi already beaten. The match was competitive, with Lazio pushing forward while Fiorentina played more cautiously.
In the 22nd minute Fiorentina were awarded a free kick just outside the area after Pietro Ghedin fouled Speggiorin. Antognoni took it, and the ball struck the underside of the crossbar before bouncing back into play. Five minutes later Lazio took the lead: Antognoni lost a challenge in midfield, D’Amico broke forward and played in Giorgio Chinaglia, who had followed the move. “Long John” fired a powerful right-footed shot into the net, earning sporting applause from the crowd.
Lazio were in complete control and nearly doubled their lead in the 32nd minute. D’Amico produced a brilliant move and delivered the ball into the area, but none of the Lazio attackers could reach it. Lazio dominated possession through to halftime.
At the break, Nereo Rocco replaced the injured Claudio Merlo with Nello Saltutti, while Maestrelli kept his starting eleven unchanged. The second half showed a very different Fiorentina. Antognoni tested Felice Pulici with a shot in the 54th minute, and two minutes later Pulici saved well in a one-on-one against Gianfranco Casarsa. In the 60th minute Vincenzo Guerini tried his luck with a powerful shot, but without success.
The equaliser arrived a minute later. Claudio Desolati pulled the ball back from the wing to Antognoni, who struck a right-footed diagonal shot that Pulici could do nothing about.
Lazio stood off while Fiorentina grew in confidence. In the 67th minute Saltutti missed a chance to put Fiorentina ahead, again denied by a timely intervention from Pulici, who repeated the feat against Fiorentina’s number 14 in the 75th minute. Lazio resurfaced in the 83rd minute, when Giancarlo Galdiolo blocked a Chinaglia effort that was headed for goal. Moments later Superchi tipped over a powerful shot from Chinaglia on the run, saving the Tuscan side.
The match seemed over, but it wasn’t. In the 85th minute Casarsa took a corner, and Giancarlo Oddi blatantly held Saltutti in the area. Referee Agnolin had no hesitation in awarding a penalty. Desolati stepped up, but his shot clipped the top of the crossbar and went out, to the despair of his teammates and supporters—and especially of Nereo Rocco, who was visibly furious.
The match ended there, with a draw that kept Lazio in contention and gave credit to a young Fiorentina side.
Who played for Fiorentina
Superchi, Galdiolo, Roggi, Beatrice, Pellegrini E., Guerini, Casarsa, Merlo (46' Saltutti), Desolati, Antognoni, Speggiorin
Substitutes: Mattolini, Caso
Manager: Rocco
Who played for Lazio
Pulici, Ghedin, Martini, Wilson, Oddi, Nanni (76’ Polentes), D’Amico, Re Cecconi, Chinaglia, Frustalupi, Badiani
Manager: Maestrelli
Referee: Agnolin
Goals: 27’ Chinaglia, 61’ Antognoni
What happened next
In the next game Lazio re-established the one-point gap but in the last game of the first half of the season the Biancocelesti lost at Ascoli and the gap went to -3.
The three-point gap stayed until the end of February. Two points in the next four games meant that Lazio dropped to fourth place, -6 from the Bianconeri.
After winning at Bologna, the team were told that Tommaso Maestrelli had cancer and at that point the players lost interest in Serie A. With three games to the end of the season the Biancocelesti were fifth but they managed to pick up in the final games and reach fourth place which meant a UEFA Cup qualification.
Lazio finished fourth qualifying for the UEFA Cup. The big question was who was going to substitute Tommaso Maestrelli?
Giancarlo Oddi, Giorgio Chinaglia, Pino Wilson and Felice Pulici had the most appearances (34), Chinaglia was the top scorer with 14 goals.
Let’s talk about Giancarlo Antognoni
Giancarlo Antognoni is one of the best midfielders ever to have played for Italy. A Fiorentina legend, he was one of the players who won the World Cup in Spain in 1982.
Born on April 1 1954 in Marsciano near Perugia, he started his footballing career with Torino at 15 years of age in 1969, but after a year was sold to Asti in Serie D. In 1972 his big chance: he signed for Fiorentina. His debut in Serie A took place on October 15 and what followed were 15 years in Florence, 429 appearances and 72 goals. He won the Coppa Italia in 1974-75 and the Anglo Italian League Cup in 1975, beating West Ham in the final. In 1976 he became captain.
Antognoni never won the scudetto but certainly did go very close in 1981-82. At the end of the first half of the season the Viola were leading, with one point over Juventus and two more than Roma. Juventus caught up in February and then there was a neck-and-neck race until mid-March when Juve won against Roma away and Fiorentina drew against Torino. With four games to the end the Viola caught up only to fall behind again with two games to the end of the season with a draw in Milan against Inter (Juve had won comfortably at Udine). Udinese, always very democratic when it comes to giving away points to the top teams, lost in Florence and Juve drew with Napoli. With one game to go, both teams were on 44 points. The last two games were Cagliari-Fiorentina and Catanzaro-Juve. At Cagliari, Fiorentina were unable to score, Juve won thanks to a Liam Brady penalty (which was blatant). There was controversy however on a goal not given to the Viola even though the referee was probably right.
On November 22, 1981, there was the incident with Silvano Martina who was playing for Genoa. Playing in Florence, there was a long cross into the box for the Fiorentina captain. As he was going for the ball, Martina came out of his goal to face him and tried to get to the ball first but de facto kneed Antognoni in the head. He fractured his skull in two places and his heart stopped beating for about 30 seconds. Fortunately, the Genoa team doctor was able to untwist Antognoni’s tongue and give him CPR via chest compression and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He was in a coma for two days and then gradually recovered.
In 1984 Antognoni was the victim of another serious injury when he broke his leg. It took him nearly two years to come back. In 1986 he suffered another injury and at the end of the season he left Florence. He signed for Lausanne and stayed in Switzerland for two years until he retired.
Antognoni had a long career with the Nazionale. He debuted on November 20, 1974 against the Netherlands and played regularly. He was part of the team that came fourth in the 1978 World Cup playing five games. In 1982 he played in the World Cup in Spain and he will be remembered for having scored Italy’s disallowed fourth goal against Brazil which was not given for unknown reasons. The Azzurri played terribly in the first phase, but in the second beat both Argentina and Brazil to reach the semi-final. In the game against Poland, he got injured hence did not play in the final against West Germany. In total he made 73 appearances for Italy with 7 goals.
After he stopped playing, he worked for Fiorentina, first as a scout, then team manager and later general director. He was even manager at one point, sharing the bench with Luciano Chiarugi, in the 1992-93 season which saw Fiorentina relegated. In 2001 he resigned after manager Fatih Terim was sacked. He began to work for the Italian Football Federation first as coordinator of the youth team scouts and then as head of delegation for the Under-15s. In 2017 he went back to work for Fiorentina first as club representative and then as club manager. He left in 2021.
Antognoni was a great player, elegant, had a powerful shot, great vision. He will forever be a legend at Fiorentina.
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