Fighting match

Simon Basten
May 24, 2024
3 min read

Season 1930-31

Game 28, Serie A

Sunday, May 24, 1931

Stadio PNF, Rome

Lazio Roma 2-2

Roma manage to equalise in the final minutes and a brawl among players ends the game

This season had certainly been better than the previous. After the first half of the campionato Lazio were sixth together with Modena. However, in the second half they had fallen back. Ferenc Molnar had resigned two games before today's game after Lazio had lost at Genoa and was replaced by Cesare Migliorini. Lazio had then won at Alessandria.

Roma were second, fighting with Juventus for the scudetto. They were just three points behind the Bianconeri with seven games left in the season.

The match

Roma started strongly and scored in the 2nd minute with Rodolfo Volk but he was in offside so no goal. But they continued to attack and Fulvio Bernardini shortly after hit the crossbar with one of his powerful shots. In the 12th minute Octavio Fantoni II shaved the crossbar. Only a few minutes later Bernardini again gave a splendid ball to Arturo Chini Ludueña who passed to Nicolas Lombardo but the Giallorosso missed the easy chance. Piero Pastore then forced Guido Masetti to parry a powerful shot.

In the 27th minute the Biancocelesti scored. On the counter attack, Marino Furlani passed to Pastore who went past the Roma defence and beat Masetti.

João Fantoni I, after a great assist from Pastore, missed the chance for 2-0 in the 37th minute and 180 seconds later Luigi Ziroli threw away another opportunity after a bad pass back by a Roma player. He took too long to shoot and Renato Bodini was able to save the Giallorossi. A Bernardini bicycle kick one minute from time was saved by Ezio Sclavi.

Fireworks in the beginning of the second half. After a minute Mario De Micheli intercepted a ball towards Pastore and passed to Raffaele Costantino, big whack, Sclavi saved into corner. From the latter, Constantino crossed into the box and Volk managed to beat the Lazio keeper with a ball that went through a number of legs.

But Lazio were soon ahead again. Corner for Lazio, great header from Fantoni I and the Biancocelesti scored. Only six minutes of the second half had gone by.

The Biancoceleste goal hit Roma hard psychologically but Bernardini managed to keep the team together and Lazio fell back in defence even if they were still dangerous on the counter attack. In the 74th minute Masetti was forced to parry a good Ziroli shot. In the 82nd minute it was Sclavi who stopped a Volk attempt and two minutes later the Biancoceleste keeper, despite being pressed by three Roma players, managed to catch a Costantino cross. Three minutes from time, Roma equalised. Free kick two metres from the penalty area. Too many players in the wall, Sclavi was unable to see the Renato Bodini shot which beat him.

Roma, just three points behind Serie A leaders Juventus, pressed for a winner. The ball went out and General Giorgio Vaccaro from the bench kicked it towards a Lazio player. The Romanisti thought he was wasting time and a massive brawl broke out among the players and staff of the two teams. It took the referee ten minutes to calm everybody down. A few seconds later he closed the game. At this point the fighting continued, worse than before and even involving the fans. In came the police on horseback who charged thus putting an end to the fighting.

It was not the first time there were fights among players in a derby, and it certainly would not be the last.

Who played for Lazio

Sclavi, Tognotti, Mattei II, Pardini, Furlani, Ziroli, Pastore, Spivach, Lamon, Fantoni II, Fantoni I