July 12, 2006: Ritzing Lazio 0-3, Friendly

Simon Basten
10 hours ago
4 min read

Good training match

Lazio score three in the first half in their opening friendly of preseason training

Also on this day: July 12, 1958: Lazio Roma 1-1, Coppa Italia. Lazio better in the first half, Roma in the second. The draw is consequential.

The season so far

Despite a UEFA Cup qualification at the end of the previous season, Lazio were unable to play due to the infamous refereeing scandal known as Calciopoli. They had also been docked 3 points for this season.

In the summer, Lazio said goodbye to Fabio Liverani, Ousmane Dabo and Paolo Di Canio who had not renewed their contracts. The new arrivals were Cristian Ledesma (Lecce), Massimo Mutarelli (free transfer) and Tommaso Berni (Ternana, loan) but we were still in full transfer mode so more players should be coming.

The Biancocelesti were currently in preseason training at Bad Tatzmannsdorf in Austria. Today was the first training match against Ritzing who were in the Austrian third tier.

The match: Wednesday, July 12, 2006, Sonnensee Stadion, Ritzing

Being a training match and since Lazio were still in preparation for the upcoming season, one really did not expect fireworks. But still the team played well.

Without Angelo Peruzzi and Massimo Oddo who were in Germany with the Nazionale, plus the injured Gaby Mudingayi, Valon Behrami and Simone Inzaghi, and with a new midfield made up of Cristian Ledesma and Massimo Mutarelli, Lazio managed to control the game comfortably and scored three goals in the first half: Goran Pandev in the 19^th minute thanks to a play started by Ledesma, and a Tommaso Rocchi brace in the 24th and 40th minutes, the latter thanks to a Mutarelli assist.

In the second half, space for the reserves and the new players Riccardo Bonetto, Alberto Quadri and Tommaso Berni, who all played well. Lazio however failed to score more goals.

Delio Rossi at the end of the match was satisfied despite it just being a friendly.

Who played for Lazio

First half: Ballotta, Belleri, Siviglia, Stendardo, Zauri, Mauri, Ledesma, Mutarelli, Manfredini, Pandev, Rocchi

Second half: Berni, De Silvestri, Cribari, Stendardo, Bonetto, Belleri (73’ Greco), Baronio, Ledesma (56’ Quadri), Mauri, Tare, Rocchi (56’ Firmani)

Manager: Rossi

Who played for Ritzing

Bittner (55' Koch), Zeiner, Stifter, Swobodia, Rauchbaher, Schiffer, Mertl (55' Seckel), Plosnik, Komljenovic, Pajer

Manager: Reiszner

Referee: Jera

Goals: 19’ Pandev, 24’ Rocchi, 40’ Rocchi

What happened next

Lazio later signed Pasquale Foggia (Milan on loan), Stephen Makinwa (Palermo) and Modibo Diakité (Pescara).

The first games of the season were in Coppa Italia. In the first round Lazio beat Rende 4-0, in the second they drew 1-1 at Monza but won on penalties, in the third they lost to Messina 4-3 in extra time.

In the first two games of Serie A the Biancocelest were unlucky. They lost to Milan away in the first game but played well, and also lost to Palermo at home in the second. This match saw the Palermo goalkeeper saving everything, even the impossible. But they recovered, closing the first half of the season joint 4th but 12 points behind Palermo in 3rd. The highlight had been the 3-0 thrashing of Roma in the derby.

In the winter transfer window, the club sold captain Massimo Oddo to Milan and loaned Pasquale Foggia to Reggina. In came Chilean midfielder Luis Jimenez on loan from Ternana.

Between mid-February and mid-April Lazio won eight consecutive games taking them from fifth place to third with an 8-point lead over fourth. This meant that not only did Lazio have a good chance of playing in Europe the following season, but it could even be in the Champions League. The Biancocelesti then managed to qualify for the preliminary round of the top tier European football with two matches to go despite losing 4-3 against Inter. Lazio finished third ahead of Milan and behind Inter and Roma. They certainly took advantage of Milan’s 8-point deficit due to Calciopoli and Juventus having previously been relegated to Serie B, but for such a young, inexperienced team such as Lazio in 2006-07 this was still an incredible feat.

Lazio ended up with 18 wins, 11 draws and 9 losses. Rocchi was the leading scorer with 16 goals and also one of the three who played most games together with Pandev and Luciano Zauri (36 appearances).

Let’s talk about Daniele Greco

Daniele Greco was born in Rome on April 27, 1988.

An under-15 Italian international, he participated in the Lazio preseason training of 2006 in Austria and was on the bench in the third match of Coppa Italia which the Biancocelesti lost 4-3 against Messina in extra time.

In 2007 he was loaned to Gallipoli in Serie C1 where he made 2 league appearances. He later went to Sassuolo but played just a single match. In 2008 he joined Sorrento in Lega Pro where he stayed a couple of years, followed by Paganese and Melfi. Back in Sorrento in 2011, he later played for Pro Patria, Palestrina and Ascoli.

He retired in 2017.

Greco was a good midfield prospect but never made it to top tier professional football.

Sources

Lazio Wiki (1)

Lazio Wiki (2)