July 20, 2014: Lazio – Indonesia U23 2-0, Friendly

More experiments

Two goals, a missed penalty and three posts against the Indonesian U23

Player of the day: Lorenzo Filippini

Also on this day: July 20, 2016: Lazio Padova 2-1. Despite the lack of new players, Lazio look to be on the right path

Source Lazio Wiki

The season so far

Last season had not been good and manager Vladimir Petkovic had been sacked half way through and replaced by veteran Edy Reja. The latter did not want to continue so Lazio had chosen Stefano Pioli for this year. A controversial decision. Pioli did not have an extensive CV but was considered to be a rising star.

As far as transfers were concerned, Lazio did their homework this year. New arrivals included right back Dušan Basta (Udinese), left back Edson Braafheid (free transfer), midfielder Marco Parolo (Parma) and centre forward Filip Djordjevic (free transfer). Danilo Cataldi had also returned from his loan at Crotone.

Leaving Lazio were André Dias who had retired, Giuseppe Biava who had decided not to renew his contract plus a number of minor players such as Gael Kakuta, Emiliano Alfaro, Brayan Perea and Helder Postiga.

The Biancocelesti were in the usual preseason training period at Auronzo di Cadore. They had already played a couple of games against minor teams and today they faced the Indonesian U23s.

The match: Sunday, July 20, 2014, Stadio Rodolfo Zandegiacomo, Auronzo di Cadore

Two goals, a missed penalty and three posts. This is the summary of this third preseason friendly at Auronzo di Cadore. Manager Stefano Pioli mixed things up a little bit, with two different teams per half and including primavera players, reserves and first eleven in both of the 45 minutes.

Keita Balde was placed at the centre of the attack, not his cup of tea and one could certainly see it. He missed a penalty in the 18th minute, hit the woodwork twice and generally kept onto the ball too long. Pioli wanted quick passes, Keita still had to learn. In the first half the goal was scored by Bruno Pereirinha with an excellent shot in the 14th minute.

Filip Djordjevic came on in the second half and in the 64th minute volleyed in an excellent cross from Vinicius. He then missed a sitter shortly after sending the ball onto the crossbar.

A good test for Lazio who were showing progress.

Who played for Lazio

First half: Marchetti, Basta, Novaretti, Ciani, Braafheid, Cataldi, Elez, Mauri, Pereirinha, Keita, Cavanda

Second half: Strakosha, Konko, Cana, Filippini, Radu, Antic, Ledesma, Vinicius, Felipe Anderson, Djordjevic, Oikonomidis

Substitutes: Guerrieri, Rozzi, Alfaro

Manager: Pioli

Who played for Indonesia U23

Ardhiyasa, Saputra, Igbonefo, Lestusen, Tuasalamony, Kusnandar (82' Pellu), Bakri, Lestaluhu (75' Maulana), Gatra (87' Setiawan), Sulaiman (65' Estusen), Makatindu (53' Ramdhani)

Substitutes: Triana, Amiruddin, Zaenuri, Syahrizal, Cahya, Sofyan, Babu

Manager: Aji Santoso

Referee: Tommasi

Goals: 14’ Pereirinha, 64’ Djordjevic

What happened next

The Biancocelesti went on to sign centre backs Stefan de Vrij (Feyenoord) and Santiago Gentiletti (San Lorenzo).

Lazio struggled in the beginning. In the third fixture, away at Genoa, Gentiletti got seriously injured and the Biancocelesti had difficulty in replacing him. But then things started to work out and Lazio ended the first part of the season in fifth place, two points from third. More importantly, one could see that Felipe Anderson was in the form of his life and had been devastating in some matches.

So, at the end of the first half of the season Lazio were fifth, two points behind Napoli and Sampdoria, third.

In the first game of the second round of fixtures the Biancocelesti demolished Milan 3-1 but then lost two consecutive matches, away at Cesena and at home to Genoa. From then on, they started a run of seven consecutive wins that took them to third place, just one point behind Roma. Their eight-consecutive win against Empoli allowed them to overtake the Giallorossi but it was short-lived since they lost the next game away to Juventus.

So, it was all down to the derby in the last but one match of the season to determine who would be second. Unfortunately, Lazio lost and in the last game a point was needed at Napoli to secure third place. Napoli, on the other hand, needed to win to overtake Lazio. At the end of the first half Lazio were winning 2-0, but in the second, Napoli equalised and were then awarded a controversial penalty. Gonzalo Higuain missed it, and towards the end Lazio scored with Eddy Onazi and Miro Klose to clinch the match and third place.

There were big celebrations. Lazio had played very well all year and possibly deserved even more than third place, but controversial refereeing decisions, especially in Lazio-Inter 1-2, plus exhaustion towards the end did not allow it to happen.

Lazio had a good run in Coppa Italia too. After beating Varese in December 3-0 (Abdoulay Konko, Djordjevic and Felipe Anderson), they won 3-1 away against Torino (Keita, Klose and Cristian Ledesma) and beat Milan at San Siro in the quarter finals thanks to a Lucas Biglia penalty. In the semi-final against Napoli Lazio drew the first leg at home 1-1 (Klose the scorer) and won in Naples 1-0 with a goal by Senad Lulic.

The final was at the Olimpico against Juventus. Lazio scored immediately with Stefan Radu but Juventus soon equalised. In the first half of extra time Djordjevic hit the woodwork twice with one shot and Juventus scored immediately after. Lazio were very unlucky.

The players with most appearances were Miroslav Klose and Marco Parolo (40). The German was obviously top scorer with 16 goals.

Let’s talk about Lorenzo Filippini

Lorenzo Filippini was born in Rome on July 28 1995. He started playing for Lazio at a young age  and then with the Primavera team won a scudetto and a Coppa Italia. He was a skilful defender and attracted the attention of Serie B clubs. In 2014 he was loaned to Bari but made just 10 league appearances. A year later he signed to Pro Vercelli, again on loan, and in 2016 it was the turn of Cesena, all in the second tier.

Not finding much playing time anywhere, he was loaned out again in 2017 this time to Pisa in Serie C. Here he played a lot more, 35 league appearances with one goal, but did not stay. In January 2019 he was loaned to Cavese and in July he was sold to Gubbio 1910, again in the third tier. He later signed for Triestina but the continuous lack of regular playing time forced him to move to Serie D where in the last years he played for Tritium, Vis Artena and Avezzano.

Filippini was a promising defender, but the promise was never really fulfilled.

Sources

Lazio Wiki (1)

Lazio Wiki (2)