Almost comfortable win
An Antoniotti brace and Sentimenti IV’s saves allow the Biancocelesti to beat the Rosaneri
The season so far
In the previous season Lazio had come an excellent 4th for the third year running under manager Giuseppe Bigogno. As usual, there was not much money for transfers so the only good players arriving were midfielder Per Bredesen, Norwegian International, forwards Giovanni Migliorini (Inter) and Paolo Bettolini (Magenta), winger Emilio Caprile (Juventus) plus the returns of Renato Spurio and Aldo De Fazio from the loans. Leaving Lazio were centre-forward Sukru Gulesin (Palermo) and Leoncino Unzain (Toulon) and alas also fan favourites Enrique Flamini (Reggiana) and Vittorio Sentimenti III (Torino). Vittorio Bergamo arrived from Sampdoria in the autumn.
In the first six games of the season Lazio had won three, drawn one and lost two and were currently fifth.
The match: Sunday, November 2, 1952, Stadio Torino, Rome
There was a strong wind blowing behind Palermo in the first half and that created some difficulty for the Biancocelesti, but after 11 minutes Lazio scored. Luciano Marchetti made a mistake and Lelio Antoniotti took advantage, arriving face to face with the keeper. Low shot, 1-0 for the Biancocelesti.
Lazio had numerous chances to double the score with Bredesen and Aldo Puccinelli but were it not for Lucidio Sentimenti IV, Palermo could also easily have equalised. Lorenzo Bettini and Flavio Cecconi both had chances but they were parried by the legendary keeper. The islanders had another chance with Enrique Martegani but his shot hit the woodwork.
In the 62nd minute Lazio scored again with Antoniotti. Ragnar Larsen had tried a shot but it was walled, the Norwegian tried again but again the Palermo defence cleared. But there was nothing they could do on Antoniotti’s shot.
From then on, the Rosanero did not have the strength for a comeback and the Biancocelesti easily controlled the rest of the match.
Who played for Lazio
Sentimenti IV, Antonazzi, Furiassi, Alzani, Sentimenti V, Bergamo, Bettolini, Bredesen, Antoniotti, Larsen, Puccinelli
Manager: Bigogno
Who played for Palermo
Manager: Bonizzoni
Referee: Corallo
Goals: 11’ Antoniotti, 62’ Antoniotti
What happened next
The first half of the season was rather positive and Lazio reached 6th place, just four points off second place Milan. Despite losing to future champions Juventus 5-0 in Turin, they had won the derby, beaten Napoli and drawn against Inter. The first match of the second half had seen Lazio triumph 4-0 at Udine but then the Biancocelesti lost 6 out of seven games and Tognotti was fired and replaced by Alfredo Notti. In his first game Lazio beat Roma but then they would only win one more game and finished with three consecutive defeats. In the end they came a disappointing 10th.
Sentimenti IV, Primo Sentimenti V and Bredesen were the players with most appearances (32), and the top goal scorers were Larsen and Bettolini with 7 goals.
Lazio 1952-53
Competition | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals Scored |
Serie A | 34 | 12 | 7 | 15 | 38 |
Top five appearances
Player | Serie A |
Bredesen | 32 |
Sentimenti IV | 32 |
Sentimenti V | 32 |
Larsen | 31 |
Puccinelli | 31 |
Top five goal scorers
Player | Serie A |
Larsen | 7 |
Bettolini | 7 |
Bredesen | 6 |
Puccinelli | 6 |
Antoniotti | 4 |
Let's talk about Lelio Antoniotti
Lelio Antoniotti was born in Bard (Aosta Valley) on January 17, 1928. He started playing football with Sparta Novara and debuted in Serie C in the 1945-46 season. In the following year he signed for Pro Patria in Serie B and with 22 goals in 35 appearances contributed to the club’s promotion to Serie A. The team managed to stay in the top tier with an 8th place and Antoniotti scored 11 goals. Unfortunately, pleurisy maimed his subsequent two years where he made much fewer appearances (19 games with 9 goals). His last year in Lombardy was 1950-51 where he played a lot more but did not score as much, just six goals in 32 appearances.
In 1951-52 he signed for Lazio. The goal-scoring drought continued and in his two years in Rome he only scored ten goals in 53 games. It did not get better when he moved to Turin in 1953. With Torino he played 78 games with 13 goals. His last three years were with Juventus, Vicenza and Novara.
When he finished playing football, he became part of the Italian Football Federation Staff and was in charge of courses on football techniques. Later on, he was one of the examiners for the Coverciano Manager course.
Antoniotti was not a bad player, but perhaps he was too small to be a centre-forward, more like Paolo Rossi without the speed than Christian Vieri. But he was good with his feet and knew what to do with the ball. The only problem is that a centre forward has to score goals, and he scored too few.
Lazio Career
Season | Apperances Serie A (goals) |
1951-52 | 29 (6) |
1952-53 | 24 (4) |
Total | 53 (10) |
Source