An impressive eagle but a tame devil

Dag Jenkins
Jan 15, 2024
3 min read

Season 1977-78

Game 14, Serie A

Sunday, January 15, 1978

Stadio Olimpico, Rome

Lazio Milan 2-0

Two second half goals give Lazio memorable win over Milan

So far in Serie A the Biancocelesti were joint 8th, on 13 points with Verona. Europe was three points above (Perugia on 16) while Serie B was five points below (Fiorentina on 8). Lazio had won 3 (including Juventus 3-0 at home), drawn 7 (including derby 0-0 and Inter 1-1 away) and lost 3 (including recent 0-4 away to Perugia).

At the moment Milan were 2nd, on 18 points, only one behind leaders Juventus. The Devil had won 6 (including derby 3-1), drawn 6 (including Juventus 1-1 away) and lost 1. They were favourites today but they had not won in four games (D3, L1) and Lazio had already shown against Juventus that they could be dangerous at home. Their last home win however had been on October 30, time for another with a big scalp thrown in?

The match: Sunday, January 15, 1978, Stadio Olimpico, Rome

Light cloud and sunny in Rome today but the pitch was slightly heavy due to the previous days' rain. A 50,000-crowd turned up with a large away support too as the "Big Three" have fans all over the country and Rome is a popular and convenient fixture especially for fans from southern Italy.

Lazio were without defender Gigi Martini and midfielder Vincenzo D'Amico while Milan were missing defender Aldo Bet and midfielder Ruben Buriani.

The first half was soporific and was played at pedestrian pace. There was no goal action and not much to comment on. Lazio attacked more and totted up corners and at least forced Enrico Albertosi into a couple of saves while Claudio Garella barely had to dirty his gloves. At halftime Lazio 0 Milan 0.

At halftime Vinicio decided to replace injured defender Pietro Ghedin with midfielder Luigi Boccolini.

In the second half Lazio decided to speed things up and finally played with a sense of urgency. Renzo Garlaschelli and Bruno Giordano began to cause more problems for Giuseppe Sabadini and young Fulvio Collovati.

Giordano had a goal mysteriously disallowed but the Biancocelesti got the breakthrough anyway in the 61st minute. Ciccio Cordova ran forward and seeing he was not challenged tried a low shot which came off the post and then hit outstretched goalkeeper Enrico Albertosi's back, the quickest to react was Boccolini who pounced and scored, 1-0.

The visitors complained that Giordano had got in Albertosi's way when he was on the ground but the referee after consulting the linesman gave the goal.

At this point Milan woke up but were never dangerous. They messed up the last pass a couple of times and despite a few scrambles in Lazio's area Claudio Garella was not threatened.

They also left Lazio a lot of space on the break. In the 74th minute Totò Lopez burst forward and teed up Cordova but his effort went just wide.

In the 75th minute the Rossoneri made a strange move by taking off their centre-forward Egidio Calloni and putting on Ugo Tosetto.

Lazio absorbed Milan's sterile pressure and in the 82nd minute scored again. Following a Francesco Morini mistake, Cordova sent Garlascelli on the counterattack, the Lombard winger went past Collovati and then past the keeper but towards the by-line from where he intelligently passed to a better positioned Giordano who had no problem scoring, 2-0.

Lazio then controlled the last minutes without conceding any chances to the devil to reopen the game. Final score Lazio 2 Milan 0.

An excellent win for Lazio, prestigious, important but above all deserved. After a dull first half the Biancocelesti had changed gears while Milan had not. Lazio had been superior in midfield, scored two good goals, had one disallowed and not risked anything at the back. At the end of the game even Nils Liedholm, Gianni Rivera and Fabio Capello admitted the fairness of the result.

Lazio were now joint 7th with Verona and Napoli on 15 points and only two from the last European slot (Perugia on 17).

Milan were still 2nd on 18 points but had been caught up by Torino and Vicenza while Juventus were now at +3 (beating Roma 2-0 at home).

Who played for Lazio

Garella, Pighin, Ghedin (46' Boccolini), Wilson, Manfredonia, Cordova, Garlaschelli, Agostinelli, Giordano, Lopez, Badiani