September 17 1989: Lazio-Lecce 3-0

Lazio Stories
2 days ago
7 min read

Bum Bum Amarildo

The Brazilian scores two and Gregucci gets a third as Lazio cruise to first home victory

Also on this day:

September 17, 1995, Bari Lazio 3-3. After a nightmare start, 3-1 down at half time and in ten men, Lazio conquer point despite Protti hat-trick.
September 17, 2016, Lazio Pescara 3-0. A well deserved win for Lazio after Abruzzesi waste spot kick chance.

The season so far

The previous season in their first year back in Serie A, after three seasons in B, Lazio had finished 11th under Giuseppe Materazzi. The main joy had been winning the derby 1-0 with a Paolo Di Canio goal.

This year Materazzi was still manager. Lazio made quite a few changes in the transfer market. The most important players coming in were keeper Fernando Orsi back after a few years (Arezzo), defenders Cristiano Bergodi (Pescara), Raffaele Sergio (Mantova), Roberto Soldà, midfielders Franco Marchegiani (Pescara), Pedro Troglio (Verona), forwards Amarildo (Celta Vigo) and Alessandro Bertoni (Avellino).

Leaving were some of the promotion heroes: keeper Silvano Martina (Torino), defender Raimondo Marino (Lecce), midfielders Antonio Elia Acerbis (Verona) and Ciro Muro (Cosenza) plus forward Antonio Rizzolo (Pescara). Also saying goodbye were defender Nelson Gutiérrez (Verona) and forward Gustavo Dezotti (Cremonese). One later regret would be letting a young Luigi Di Biagio go as he would go on to play 114 league games for Roma, 117 for Inter and win 31 Italy caps.

So, Lazio did not appear to have particularly improved the squad but were hoping to better the previous year's eleventh place.

So far in Serie A Lazio had played 4 games; won 1 (Milan 1-0 away), drawn 1 (Cremonese 1-1 at home and lost 2 (Sampdoria 0-2 at home on debut and most recently 0-1 away at Fiorentina). Not a great start and Lazio's only win, albeit precious, had come courtesy of a freakish Paolo Maldini own goal.

In Coppa Italia, in August, Lazio had beaten Ancona 2-0 but then lost 1-2 at home to Bologna after extra-time (goals by two former players Bruno Giordano and Lorenzo Marronaro) and were eliminated.

Lecce had finished 9th the previous season, two points ahead of Lazio. The manager was Carlo Mazzone and top scorer Pedro Pasculli with 9 goals (7 in A). The Giallorossi had beaten Lazio 1-0 in Puglia and drawn 0-0 in Rome. Their biggest win of the season was defeating Juventus 2-0 at home. The squad included Lazio connections Marco Baroni (manager 2024-25) and goalkeeper Giuliano Terraneo (1986-87). Future top player and coach Antonio Conte was also present.

This season the manager was still Mazzone. The main new signings were; defenders Giacomo Ferri (Torino), Raimondo Marino (Lazio), Antonio Carannante (Napoli), midfielder Alessandro Morello (Nola-back from loan) and forward Pietro Paolo Virdis (Milan).

Leaving Salento were; defender Marco Baroni (Napoli), Salvatore Antonio Nobile (Cesena), midfielders Giorgio Enzo (Torino) and Rodolfo Vanoli (Udinese).

In Serie A so far the Giallorossi had 4 points after 2 wins (Atalanta and Cesena both 2-1 at home) and 2 defeats (Genoa 0-1 away on debut and Inter 1-2 away).

In the Coppa Italia they too were already out. They had won the Apulian derby against Brindisi 2-0 at home but then lost to Pescara away on penalties.

A difficult game to predict today between two similar level teams. Lazio had to start winning these types of games at home if they did not want to be bogged down in the lower half of the table.

The match: Sunday, September 17, 1989, Stadio Flaminio, Rome

A still hot and summery day brought just under 20,000 to the Flaminio.

Lazio were without midfielder Pedro Troglio and Uruguayan striker Ruben Sosa. Lecce too had absences: defender Antonio Carannante, midfielder Francesco Moriero and striker Juan Barbas (unforgotten Lazio fans' hero of Roma v Lecce 1986 when his brace virtually lost the Giallorossi the Scudetto).

Lazio already threatened in the first minute when Cristiano Bergodi fired just over the bar following a scramble in the area.

The game soon fell into a favourable mode for Lazio as they scored after only four minutes. Raffaele Sergio put in a good cross from the left and Amarildo rose above his marker Roberto Miggiano, perhaps distracted by thoughts of his new bible (a gift from Amarildo) and headed past a frozen Giuliano Terraneo, 1-0.

Lecce had a free kick in the 11th minute but Valerio Fiori comfortably saved Hungarian forward István Vincze's effort.

Ten minutes later and Lazio were already two nil up. In the 21st minute Bergodi gave Amarildo the easiest of scoring chances and from close range the Brazilian did not miss, 2-0.

In the 26th minute things went from bad to worse for the Salentini visitors. On yet another Sergio cross Angelo Gregucci dived and headed in one of his trademark flying headers, 3-0. Not even half an hour gone and the game was practically over.

Two minutes later Miggiano was sent to read his new book and was replaced by Luceri.

Lazio slowed down and controlled the game. Halftime Lazio 3 Lecce 0.

For the second half Mazzone tried the old fox Pietro Paolo Virdis card who came on for midfielder Antonio Conte.

The veteran striker however did not change much. It was teammate Pedro Pablo Pasculli who was the only one to cause Lazio any problems. In the 67th minute he got the better of Roberto Soldà and only had Fiori to beat but his strike came back off the post.

Lazio made two substitutions; in the 70th minute Massimiliano Nardecchia came on for Gregucci and ten minutes later Franco Marchegiani replaced Claudio Sclosa.

For Lazio Paolo Di Canio was sometimes selfish in his search for his first goal of the season.

Lecce plodded on looking for some glory and almost found it three minutes from time when former Lazio, Raimondo Marino's header was saved onto the post by Fiori who then also blocked Paolo Benedetti's final attempt from the rebound. Final score; Lazio 3 Lecce 0.

A comfortable win for the Romans. Three goals in 26 minutes would have finished off most teams let alone today's lame Lecce outfit.

Lazio were up to 9th in midtable on 5 points while Lecce were joint 10th on 4 points with other six teams (including Cesena in last relegation slot). It was early days though.

Who played for Lazio

Fiori, Bergodi, Sergio, Pin, Gregucci (80' Nardecchia), Soldà, Di Canio, Icardi, Amarildo, Sclosa (70' F.Marchegiani), Bertoni

Substitutes: Orsi, Piscedda, Beruatto

Manager: Materazzi

Who played for Lecce

Terraneo, Miggiano (28' Luceri), Marino, Levanto, Righetti, Garzya, Conte (46' Virdis), Monaco, Pasculli, P.Benedetti, Vincze

Substitutes: Negretti, Ingrosso, De Giorgi

Manager: Mazzone

Referee: Cornieti

Goals: 4' Amarildo, 21' Amarildo, 26' Gregucci

What happened next

Lazio finished 9th, on 31 points. After today's win the Biancocelesti won 6 (including eventual champions Napoli 3-0 and Inter 2-1), drew 14 (including one derby 1-1) and lost 9 (including other derby 0-1). Top scorer was Amarildo with 9 goals (8 in A, as did Ruben Sosa). So a similar season to the previous. It was probably time for a change, enter Dino Zoff.

Lecce finished 14th, on 28 points (only one from relegation). From now on the Lupi won 8 (including derby 1-0 against Bari), drew 8 (including Lazio 0-0 and Bari 1-1) and lost 13. The top scorer was Pasculli again with 11 goals (9 in A).

The Serie A champions were Napoli for the second time in their history. Going down a level were Udinese, Verona, Cremonese and Ascoli.

Let’s talk about Amarildo

Amarildo Souza do Amaral, known as Amarildo, was born in Curitiba, Paraná, on October 2 1964. He was a decent centre forward, not exactly great with his feet but he was an exceptional header of the ball and his classic goal was the lob to the far post.

He had a very long career and played in lots of clubs. He grew up in Pinheiros and in 1982 joined Toledo EC. From 1984 he played in quite a number of Brazilian teams (Botafogo, Operário-MS, Inter de Limeira, XV de Piracicaba) before ending up with Internacional Porto Alegre where he played from 1986 to 1988, playing 26 league games with 8 goals.

In 1988 he was spotted by Celta Vigo and had a European chance. He played well in the Liga and scored 16 goals that season. Lazio meanwhile were not pleased with how Abel Dezotti had played the previous season and were looking for a new centre forward and thought Amarildo would do a good job.

He did. Thanks to Di Canio on the right wing and Sergio on the left, plus his attacking companion Ruben Sosa, he was potentially in a position to have many goal scoring opportunities. However he was possibly limited by Giuseppe Materazzi’s over cautious approach to games and only scored 9 goals in his first and only season with Lazio. Not bad but they could have been more.

He was sold to Cesena at the end of the season and replaced by Karl Heinz Riedle. With Cesena he stayed two seasons, the first in A and the second in B, playing 64 league games with 13 league goals (5 in A) plus 6 goals in Coppa Italia.

He stayed in Italy until 1992 and won the Mitropa Cup with Torino (he was briefly loaned by Cesena just for the tournament). He then played in the Spanish Liga with Logroñés in the 1992-93 season (with only 1 league goal) before going back to Brazil.

Back at home he played for Famalicão (7 goals) União São João (5), São Paulo (1) Bahia (0 appearances) and Ribeirão (0 goals) and then in 1999 retired from football.

Amarildo was part of the Athletes of Christ, a Brazilian Association of Evangelical Christian sportspeople and used to give bibles to his markers before games.

He played 31 games for Lazio, 29 in Serie A and 2 in Coppa Italia, and scored 9 goals (including two against Maradona's Napoli in an epic 3-0 win).

He now lives in Limeira (São Paulo). He has four children all of different nationalities (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Brazilian). He currently runs three football academies called CET AMARILDO which also have professional links with Lazio.