July 26, 2014: Lazio Perugia 3-0, Friendly
- Simon Basten
- Jul 26
- 5 min read
Felipe Anderson starting to shine
Excellent game from Lazio with Felipe Anderson finally showing what he is capable of
Also on this day:
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 number of games, including Indonesia U23, and today they would face Perugia.
The match: Saturday, July 26, 2014, Stadio Rodolfo Zandegiacomo, Auronzo di Cadore
In the morning Lazio had played an 80-minute friendly against Asiago Team winning 10-0. This meant that most of the players who may have found space in the second half in today’s game against Perugia had already played. As a consequence, Stefano Pioli tested his players over an 80-minute match to see how they were. The answer was certainly a positive one.
Still missing the World Cup players, the new central defender (who should have been Davide Astori but he instead decided to play for the other side of the Tiber, despite the fact that Lazio had offered more both to him and Cagliari) who rumour had it could be Stefan de Vrij, and Filip Djordjevic who could be ready by the end of the month, the Biancocelesti in a 4-3-3 formation were spectacular. Ahead with a Cristian Ledesma penalty in the 7th minute (foul on Stefano Mauri), Lazio doubled with a Diego Novaretti header in the 32nd minute and made it three with a whack from outside the box from Felipe Anderson in the 58th. Great performance from the Brazilian, finally showing what he could do. Also, very good were Federico Marchetti (some great saves) and Danilo Cataldi.
The match started five minutes late due to fights between the opposing supporters that forced the police to intervene with tear gas.
Who played for Lazio
Marchetti, Basta, Novaretti, Cana, Radu, Cataldi, Ledesma, Braafheid (67’ Minala), Felipe Anderson, Mauri, Keita (53’ Tounkara)
Substitutes: Strakosha, Guerrieri, Konko, Ciani, Filippini, Vinicius, Elez, Antic, Pereirinha, Oikonomidis, Cavanda, Djordjevic, Alfaro
Manager: Pioli
Who played for Perugia
Provedel (41' Koprivec), Del Prete (51' Zanchi), Comotto (41' Goldaniga), M. Rossi, Franco, Gomez Ribeiro (41' Parigini), Verre, Taddei (41' Carcione), Fazzi (71' Musto), Falcinelli (41' Nicco), Fabinho Ayres (41' Mazzeo)
Substitutes: Barillaro, Lo Porto, Ruci, R. Esposito
Manager: Camplone
Referee: Chiffi
Goals: 7’ Ledesma (pen), 32’ Novaretti, 58’ Felipe Anderson
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 in 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 went on 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 even deserved 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 Vinicius
Vinícius de Freitas Ribeiro, better known as Vinícius Freitas or Vinícius, was born on March 7 1993 in Rio de Janeiro. After having played in the youth teams of Fluminense and Cruziero, in 2013 he signed for Lazio.
Not finding any playing time, in January 2014 he was loaned to Padova in Serie B where he made 10 appearances with one goal. He was then loaned to Perugia (15 appearances), then Zurich where he played for both the main team as well as the second one. Back at Lazio in 2016, after six months in which he never played, he was sold to AEK Athens. He played two half seasons with very few appearances (just 13 with one goal) before he returned to Brazil. He stayed another four years in his home country where he played, very little, for Chapecoense, Botafogo and Joinville. In 2022 he signed for Hamrun Spartans in Malta and stayed for a year. He did not find another team until 2024 when he joined Francavilla in Serie D.
Like many players Igli Tare bought, he had potential but never managed to show it.
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