Four out of four

Simon Basten
Mar 17, 2023
2 min read

Season 1911-12

Game 4, Roman 3rd Category League

Sunday, March 17, 1912

Campo dei Due Pini, Rome

Roman Lazio 0-3

Lazio win their fourth consecutive game fairly comfortably despite a goalless first half

The Third Category regional leagues took place in 1912. The Italian Football Federation still did not allow teams from the southern league to play for the scudetto (this would start from the next season) so for the moment Lazio had to face Audace Esperia, Juventus Roma, Fortitudo and Alba in the Lazio third category league. The games were played between March and May due to the more favourable weather conditions.

The Biancocelesti had already played three matches, beating Fortitudo 6-0, Juventus Roma 7-0 and Audace Esperia 5-0.

The match

Lazio, victorious again today, showed that they are in superb form. In the four matches they have played so far, their excellent attacking line has scored a total of 21 goals. At the same time, their defence has never allowed opposing forwards to find the net guarded by the excellent Lorenzo Gaslini, who has hardly been called into action.

It is not unreasonable to predict that, if the team continues as it has begun, the title of champions of Lazio will once again be theirs—a title they have held since the championship was first established.

The match was played at the Due Pini ground and attracted great interest from a large crowd. The first half ended without any goals despite Lazio’s clear superiority, because Roman, playing with the wind in their favour, stayed tightly packed in defence. A few rare individual runs brought the ball into Lazio’s half, but without forcing Gaslini to make any real intervention.

Soon afterward, however, play returned to Roman’s half, where the red-and-yellow players worked hard together to protect their goal. Twenty minutes into the second half, after a foul in the penalty area, the referee awarded Lazio a penalty. Fernando Saraceni took the kick. The ball hit the goalkeeper and bounced back into play, but just as Marcello Consiglio was about to shoot, he was challenged roughly. A second penalty was awarded, and this time Saraceni successfully converted it.

Shortly afterward Consiglio scored a second goal, followed by a third, again through his own effort. Lazio’s fourth goal was disallowed by the referee for offside. The match therefore ended with Lazio winning 3–0.

Who played for Roman

Serventi, Grassi, Ferrari, Bowden, Telfener, Pedoni, O'Connor, Luzzato, Crumpt, Bompiani, Borsarelli

Who played for Lazio

Gasilini, Levi II, Giusti, Zucchi II, Fioranti, Levi I, Coraggio, Saraceni I, Corelli, Consiglio, Gaia IV