September 10, 2017: Lazio Milan 4-1
- Simon Basten
- Sep 10
- 8 min read
Updated: Sep 17
Devil too loose, Lazio thrash Milan
4-0 after 50 minutes, a dream match for the Biancocelesti
Player of the day: Ciro Immobile
Also on this day:
The season so far
The previous season Lazio had arrived fifth and qualified for the Europa League. They had also reached the final of the Coppa Italia but lost to Juve.
The summer transfer window had seen the arrivals of Adam Marusic, Felipe Caicedo, Liverpool legend Lucas Leiva and Manchester United legend Nani. Goodbye Wesley Hoedt, Lucas Biglia and Keita Balde.
The season kicked off to a good start. Lazio managed to beat Juventus 3-2 in the Italian Super Cup with a goal in the dying seconds from youngster Alessandro Murgia. Doubles from Ciro Immobile and Paolo Dybala had made the game 2-2.
Today was the third Serie A fixture. The Biancocelesti had drawn at home the first game against Spal and then won away at Chievo.
The match: Sunday, September 10, 2017, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Milan dominated the first 15 minutes with Lazio in clear difficulty but all they could muster was a Franck Kessie shot in the 9th minute from outside the box but central which was comfortably saved by Thomas Strakosha.
Then Lazio slowly started to take control of the game. In the 16th minute Ciro Immobile was blatantly pushed as he was about to jump after a Dusan Basta cross from the right but the ref was not impressed. Ten minutes later it was the turn of Luis Alberto to be fouled in the box but again the referee signalled to play on. In the 37th minute the Spaniard was fouled again in the box, a this time by Kessie. Third time lucky? Yes, the referee finally indicated the spot kick and Immobile made no mistake.
In the 42nd minute Senad Lulic went down the right wing and crossed into the box. Immobile was on the far post, he got into position and with a splendid volley beat Gigi Donnarumma for the second time.
In the 48th minute it was 3-0. Lulic from the left, in the middle for Luis Alberto who stopped the ball and with a magnificent touch passed to Immobile who scored his hat-trick.
And it was still not over. Immobile went onto the counter attack, ball in the middle for the upcoming Luis Alberto, 4-0.
Lazio closed shop and Milan took advantage reducing the deficit in the 56th minute with Riccardo Montolivo. They had another opportunity to score in the 65th minute when Hakan Calhanoglu crossed from the left, Mateo Musacchio tried to make contact but could not, Strakosha managed to parry and then Kessie shot to the clouds. Immobile did try to score again but first he shot wide all alone in front of Donnarumma in the 70th minute and then the Milan keeper saved his shot from outside the box a minute later.
A wonderful match from Simone Inzaghi’s team, Milan in deep trouble
Who played for Lazio
Strakosha, Wallace (15’ Bastos), de Vrij, Radu (80’ Luiz Felipe), Basta, Parolo, Leiva, Milinkovic-Savic, Lulic (65’ Lukaku), Luis Alberto, Immobile
Manager: Inzaghi
Who played for Milan
G. Donnarumma, Calabria, Musacchio, Bonucci, Rodríguez, Kessié, Biglia, Montolivo, Suso (73' Bonaventura), Cutrone (55' Calhanoglu), Borini (56' Kalinic)
Substitutes: A. Donnarumma, Storari, Abate, Antonelli, Zapata, Romagnoli, Locatelli, Mauri, André Silva
Manager: Montella
Referee: Rocchi
Goals: 38’ Immobile (pen), 42’ Immobile, 48’ Immobile, 50’ Luis Alberto, 56’ Montolivo
What happened next
At the end of the first half of the season Lazio were 4th. They stayed fourth for a while and even reached 3rd at the end of February but it lasted just one game as they lost at home against Juventus in injury time. In mid-March they slipped to fifth but again moved up to third in early April and stayed there until three games to the end of the season. The first four qualified for the Champions League. They were tied with Roma and had a four-point lead over Inter.
But with Immobile injured they drew the first game at home and Inter reduced the deficit to two points. In the penultimate game Lazio had to win against struggling Crotone but only managed to draw. Inter did too, so the final game at the Olimpico against the Nerazzurri was decisive.
With 12 minutes to go Lazio were winning 2-1, but Inter managed to score two goals in four minutes and Lazio had to settle for Europa League. A big blow.
In Coppa Italia the Biancocelesti were eliminated by Milan in the semi-finals on penalties and in Europa League they reached the quarter finals but were eliminated by Red Bull Salzburg 6-5 on aggregate.
Let’s talk about Ciro Immobile
Numbers talk:
Player who has scored most goals for Lazio in all official competitions
Player who has scored most goals for Lazio in Serie A
Player who has scored most goals for Lazio in UEFA Cup/Europa League
Player who has scored most goals for Lazio in UEFA competitions
Lazio player, along with Beppe Signori, who has been Serie A top scorer most times
One of three players to have won the trophy for top Serie A scorer with two different teams (the others being Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Luca Toni)
Player, together with Gonzalo Higuain, to have scored most goals in a season in Serie A
First Italian Serie A player to have scored at least 25 league goals three times. The other two were foreigners Gunnar Nordhal and Istvan Nyers
Player in activity with most goals scored in Serie A
We could stop here, but there is a bio to write.
Ciro Immobile was born in Torre Annunziata near Naples on February 20 1990. He started his career in the youth teams of Salernitana but he did not stand out. He then moved to play for Sorrento and scored 30 goals in the Allievi (14-16 year olds). Juventus set their eyes on him and at 17 he joined the Bianconeri. Juve won the prestigious Viareggio Tournament in 2009 thanks to an Immobile double in the final. He debuted in Serie A on March 14 2009 coming on for Alessandro Del Piero in injury time towards the end of Juventus Bologna 4-1. Later on in the year, in November, he also debuted in the Champions League against Bordeaux. He would end up with four appearances that season in all competitions.
In July 2010 he signed for Siena in Serie B on loan but he did not play much so in January he moved to Grosseto where he played a little more but only scored one goal. The big life changer for Ciro took place in the summer of 2011 when he signed for Pescara, again on loan. Together with future greats Marco Verratti and Lorenzo Insigne, and under the guidance of Zdenek Zeman, they took Pescara back to Serie A and won the championship. Immobile was Serie B top scorer with 28 goals.
In the summer of 2012 Genoa bought half of Immobile and Ciro moved to Liguria. Not a good season for him: 34 league appearances but only 5 goals. At the end of the campionato, Juventus re-acquired the other half and sold it to Torino. Together with his attacking partner Alessio Cerci and under the guidance of Gian Piero Ventura, Torino reached a Europa League qualification and Immobile scored 22 goals, top Serie A scorer.
Torino purchased the other half of Immobile and sold him to Borussia Dortmund. He played 34 games with 10 goals (4 in Champions League) in a difficult season for the Germans. He also had a few problems getting used to the new way of life. In the summer of 2015 he was loaned to Sevilla but in six months he played just 15 games (four goals) and had problems with the manager. For the remaining part of the season he was loaned back to Torino but did not leave a significant mark.
In July 2016 he signed for Lazio. On a personal note, I had wanted this to happen since Ciro’s Pescara days. He may not be pretty to watch but he has the gift of often being in the right place at the right time and scores goals. He just had to find the right kind of environment and club which could allow him to express himself at his best. Lazio was the right club and Ciro Immobile became King. With the Biancocelesti he won a Coppa Italia (2018-19) and two Super Coppas (2017 and 2019), scoring with amazing consistency. Ciro scored in every possible way: headers, volleys, shots from outside the box, left or right foot. There were only a couple of years in which he did not score more than 20 goals and that was due to injuries. In 2020 Immobile won the Golden Boot, an award given each season to the leading goal scorer in league matches from the top divisions of the European national leagues.
In the last couple of seasons his striking rate decreased. He missed a lot of games in 2022-23 due to injury and struggled in 2023-24 to find form and consistency. But one has to point out that in the last season the Biancocelesti had a hard time creating chances and this did not help.
In July 2024 he received a good offer from Beşiktaş and, after speaking with the club, decided to accept. He left Lazio after eight years in the same year that Luis Alberto and Felipe Anderson also left, then a year later Sergej Milinkovic-Savic decided to go to Saudi Arabia. The end of an era at Lazio.
His year in Turkey started well, scoring a brace in the 5-0 win in the Turkish Super Cup against Galatasaray. But as the season progressed he scored less and less, so at the end he left and joined Bologna for 2025-26.
Immobile has also been very useful for the Nazionale though he has not scored as much. But, as most Lazio fans know, the whole game must revolve around Ciro for him to be effective. Even Maurizio Sarri re-adapted his tactics to exploit this goal-scoring machine. This has never happened in Nazionale. Despite this, Ciro has scored 15 goals for Italy and won a European Championship. He is also the media’s favourite scapegoat for whenever something goes wrong, just like Giorgio Chinaglia was back in the 1970s. He has 57 caps with Italy and 17 goals.
For Lazio fans he will always be our captain, our champion and our King and will stay in our hearts forever.
Lazio Career
Season | Total games (Goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Europa League | Conference League | Super Coppa |
2016-17 | 41 (26) | 36 (23) | 5 (3) | - | - | | - |
2017-18 | 47 (41) | 33 (29) | 4 (2) | - | 9 (8) | | 1 (2) |
2018-19 | 46 (19) | 36 (15) | 5 (3) | - | 5 (1) | | - |
2019-20 | 44 (39) | 37 (36) | 2 (1) | - | 4 (2) | | 1 |
2020-21 | 41 (25) | 35 (20) | 1 | 5 (5) | - | | - |
2021-22 | 40 (32) | 31 (27) | 2 (1) | - | 7 (4) | | - |
2022-23 | 38 (14) | 31 (12) | 1 | - | 4 (1) | 2 (1) | - |
2023-24 | 43 (11) | 31 (7) | 3 | 8 (4) | - | - | 1 |
Total | 340 (207) | 270 (169) | 23 (10) | 13 (9) | 29 (16) | 2 (1) | 3 (2) |
Sources
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