What a comeback!!!!
Down 3-0 at the end of the first half, Lazio stage a remarkable comeback and manage to draw in the second half
Also on this day: September 10, 1933: Lazio Palermo 1-0. Lazio manage to win in difficult circumstances. Player of the day: Mario Tonali
The season so far
The previous season Lazio had surprisingly arrived fourth, so expectations were high for the 1950-51 season. A lot of money was spent on new players such as Leoncino Unzain, Primo Sentimenti V and Stefano Malacarne, so some of the old timers such as Romano Penzo, Sergio Piacentini, Renato Spurio, Ferenc Nyers and Leandro Remondini had to go. Manager Mario Sperone had been confirmed.
Today’s game was the first of the season.
The match: Sunday September 10, 1950, Stadio Torino, Rome
Up until a quarter of an hour to the end of the game, the match had been one sided. Lazio were without Francesco Antonazzi and Primo Sentimenti V and Inter had demolished the Biancocelesti. In the 14th minute Benito Lorenzi sent in a fantastic pass to Istvan Nyers who had no trouble beating Lucidio Sentimenti IV.
The Biancocelesti reacted and little Leoncino Unzain came close to equalising twice. But Inter were the much better team and in the 28th minute made it two when Lorenzi capitalised a great assist from Faas Wilkes. The Inter centre forward scored his double in the 43rd minute when he took advantage of a fumble in the Lazio defence.
Game over. Well at least that’s what the Nerazzurri thought and Lazio had not really given Inter any reason to doubt that the match was not ready to be archived. But in the second half, with nothing left to lose, the Biancocelesti started putting pressure on the Inter defence. At first timidly but as the game progressed, and the Nerazzurri were not reacting, Lazio began to believe they could at least get a goal. And this is what they did in the 72nd minute when Aldo Puccinelli with a low shot, thanks to an assist from Enrique Flamini, reduced the deficit. Inter had switched off the light a long time earlier so Lazio pushed and in the 81st minute Vittorio Sentimenti III beat Angelo Franzosi for the second time. The Biancoclesti equalised three minutes from the end again with Puccinelli.
A remarkable comeback by Lazio who, had they had a few more minutes, could have even scored a fourth!!!!
Who played for Lazio
Sentimenti IV, Montanari, Furiassi, Alzani, Bimbi, Sentimenti III, Puccinelli, Magrini, Hofling, Flamini, Unzain
Manager: Sperone
Who played for Inter
Franzosi, Blason, Padulazzi, Fattori, Giovannini, Achilli, Rossetti, Wilkes, Lorenzi, Miglioli, Nyers I
Manager: Olivieri
Referee: Galeati
Goals: 14 Nyers I, 28’ Lorenzi, 43’ Lorenzi, 72’ Puccinelli, 81’ Sentimenti III, 87’ Puccinelli
What happened next
The season was a positive one, following in the footsteps of the previous campionato. Lazio won both derbies and beat Milan. There were a few losses on the way, including a heavy one against Novara led by Silvio Piola, but overall a good performance. Some good scores as well: 5-0 against Atalanta, 4-0 against Padova.
At the end of the first half of the season they were fifth and by the end of the campionato they managed to reach fourth position. Another miracle for the Biancocelesti, their second 4th place in a row, obviously with much more limited financial possibilities compared to Milan, Inter and Juventus. The Giallorossi went down to Serie B, the first Roman team ever to be relegated.
The fourth place allowed Lazio to participate in the Zentropa Cup, an unofficial edition of the Mitropa Cup. The latter was a tournament that was initially devised in the 1920s with two teams from Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia competing in a knock out competition. The first tournament took place in 1927. In 1929 Italian teams took the place of the Yugoslav ones. In 1934 the tournament was expanded to four teams per nation. Switzerland joined in 1936 and 1937, Romania and Yugoslavia in 1937. Austria was withdrawn following the German annexation of 1938. The tournament was interrupted in 1940 due to the Second World War.
In 1951, in the light of other tournaments that were taking place such as the Latin Cup (between clubs from France, Italy, Spain and Portugal) and the Rio Cup (between European and Latin American teams), an attempt was made to resuscitate the Mitropa Cup. The Italian teams that were competing in the other two tournaments backed out so it was up to Lazio to defend the Italian colours. The other three teams were Rapid Wien, and Admira Wien (first and second in the Austrian league and very, very strong) and Dinamo Zagreb. Lazio were crushed 5-0 by Rapid and lost 2-0 against Dinamo. Rapid beat Admira in the final.
Sentimenti IV was the one who played most games during the 1950-51 season (40) and Norberto Hofling the top goal scorer (11).
Lazio 1950-51
Competition | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals scored |
Serie A | 38 | 18 | 10 | 10 | 64 |
Zentropa Cup | 2 | - | - | 2 | - |
Totale | 40 | 18 | 10 | 12 | 64 |
Top five appearances
Player | Total | Serie A | Zentropa Cup |
Puccinelli | 40 | 38 | 2 |
Sentimenti IV | 40 | 38 | 2 |
Alzani | 38 | 36 | 2 |
Flamini | 35 | 33 | 2 |
Antonazzi | 33 | 31 | 2 |
Hofling | 33 | 33 | - |
Top five goal scorers
Player | Serie A |
Hofling | 11 |
Flamini | 10 |
Puccinelli | 9 |
Cecconi | 9 |
Sentimenti V | 7 |
Arce | 7 |
Let’s talk about Serafino Montanari
Serafino Montanari was born in Portomaggiore, near Ferrara, on January 15 1921. He started his career as a centre-forward playing in his hometown team, Portuense, in Serie C. In 1941 he signed for Rovigo, again in the third tier, and the year after he moved to Padova in Serie B but did not play much, just 5 league games. After the war he started playing at midfield for Spal again in Serie B. In three years he appeared in 83 games and scored 5 goals.
He became a very highly regarded player, noted for his class and elegance. In 1948, together with his team mates Marco Brandolin and Bruno De Lazzari, he signed for Lazio. He stayed for six years in the capital and played both at midfield and defence appearing 81 times in Serie A (with one goal) and twice in the Latin Cup.
In 1954 he signed for Chinotto Neri and played 62 games in two years before retiring.
Once he stopped active football he became a manager. He started with the youth teams of Spal from 1957 to 1961, but was called to the first team in 1960 for the last seven games of the season. In 1961 he took over from Luigi Ferrero after just three games and stayed as manager until 1963.
He then was head coach for Triestina in 1963-64 in Serie B (10th place), Padova for one and a half seasons (1964-66, he was sacked half way through the 1965-66 season), Livorno in 1966-67 substituting Carlo Parola but later replaced by Parola, Foggia in 1967-68 and Spal again in 1968-69. His last job as manager was for Ternana in 1970.
Once he retired from football he went back to his old job in a pharmacy, and was President of the Ferrara Order of Pharmacists.
He died in Ferrara on February 14, 1988.
Lazio Career
Season | Total apperances (goals) | Serie A | Latin Cup |
1948-49 | 23 | 23 | - |
1949-50 | 13 (1) | 11 (1) | 2 |
1950-51 | 10 | 10 | - |
1951-52 | 8 | 8 | - |
1952-53 | 15 | 15 | - |
1953-54 | 14 | 14 | - |
Total | 83 (1) | 81 (1) | 2 |
Sources
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