June 10, 1950: Benfica Lazio 3-0, Latin Cup

Simon Basten
Jun 10
4 min read

Benfica too strong for Lazio

Lazio lose against a far better team

The season so far

In the summer 1949 Lazio were looking for a centre forward. They almost bought Jean Baratte, but the deal fell through at the last minute. A lot of players were tried out, but in the end, manager Mario Sperone had to make do with the previous season’s forwards plus the return of Flavio Cecconi. Only in November did Lazio finally find their centre forward: Dionisio Arce.

Lots of players were bought in the summer transfer window: Lucidio Sentimenti IV, his brother, Vittorio Sentimenti III, Zeffiro Furiassi, Edmondo Veronici and Aldo De Fazio. Some players had to go to make room for the new ones and among them was goalkeeper Uber Gradella, who had never completely recovered from a knee injury, and Salvador Gualtieri. They both quit football altogether.

The new Lazio took a few games to develop into a team but when they did they became a force to reckon with. The Biancocelesti crushed Roma in the first derby of the season 3-1, won 5-2 away against Sampdoria and demolished Novara at home 4-0. At the end of the first half of the season they were joint seventh with other teams.

In the second half, Lazio beat Juventus (away), Milan as well as Inter, that is the top three teams, a great feat for a team like Lazio. Other highlights included a 5-0 thrashing of Palermo and a 4-0 against Padova. They finished fourth.

At the end of the season Lazio played the Latin Cup, an international competition between French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian teams. This was because the top three Italian teams had declined participation due to the upcoming World Cup.

Before these two games Lazio played the Teresa Herrera Trophy against Atlético Madrid. This is a tournament that has been played since 1946 and is the third oldest professional tournament in Spain. Lazio won the trophy 3-1 coming from behind with goals from Romolo Alzani, Vittorio Sentimenti III and Mario Magrini. This was the only time the Biancocelesti managed to win this tournament. They played again in 1993, 1998 and 2000.

Sperone could not accompany the team due to previous commitments with the Italian Federation for the World Cup so Alfredo Notti was manager with Luciano Ramella as technical director.

The match: Saturday, June 10, 1950, Stadio Municipal, Lisbon

The game should have been played two days earlier but an epidemic of laryngitis took out eight Lazio players so the club asked for a postponement.

Benfica took a weakened Biancoceleste team apart, too much difference between the two sides. Lazio however had complaints on the first two goals. José Rosario scored after seven minutes in probabile off side, and Rogerio Carvahlo made it two on a penalty in the 27th, a little bit too generous a decision by the referee. The home team then closed the game in the 76th minute with Arsenio Duarte. After scoring three they controlled the rest of the match. Lazio could do very little, Benfica way too strong for them.

Who played for Benfica

Bastos, Jacinto, Fernandez, Moreira, Felix, Dacosta, Corona, Arsenio, Julio, Rogerio, Rosario

Manager: Smith

Who played for Lazio

De Fazio, Antonazzi, Piacentini, Montanari, Sandroni, Magrini, Puccinelli, Trevisan I, Arce, Flamini, Nyers II

Manager: Notti

TD: Ramella

Referee: Arque

Goals: 7’ Julinho 27’ Rogério Carvalho (pen), 76’ Arsenio

What happened next

Lazio lost the final for third place against Atlético Madrid 2-1 but participation in itself was a big honour for Lazio.

Sentimenti III and Sentimenti IV topped the appearances with 37 games, Norberto Hofling was top scorer with 13 goals.

Let’s talk about Aldo De Fazio

Aldo De Fazio was born in Salerno on May 26, 1927.

He started playing football for Salernitana. From 1945 to 1948 he went on loan to Filotranvia, Nocerina and Arsenaltaranto to then go back to Salernitana for the 1948-49 season. In 1949 he moved to Rome to the right side of the Tiber.

He stayed six years at Lazio with the exception of 1951-52 when he was loaned to Lucchese. He made 25 appearances as second goalkeeper and also winning the reserves league in 1952-53 and 1955-56. In 1956-57 he was out of action for six months due to injury and then loaned to Salernitana. He really did not want to stay so he asked for a very high wage which surprisingly the club accepted so he stayed on. That season they almost got promoted to Serie B arriving third just one point behind Lecco. He later became a manger, coaching Cavese, Nocerina, and many other lower tier clubs.

One anecdote: his brother-in-law, Giovanni D’Avino, in 1956-57 scored with a shot taken from midfield in a Catanzaro vs Salernitana game. De Fazio took offence and did not talk to him for many years!!!

He died in Salerno on May 19, 2009.