Top 30 Winning Upsets (1980-2026) - Part Five
- Dag Jenkins
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
More games between 2019 and 2025 in which Lazio upset the odds to clinch surprise victories.
Lazio played Milan on November 3, 2019. More than the strength of the opposition Lazio feared the 30-year jinx when playing Milan in the league at San Siro. Lazio had beaten them several times in Rome in Serie A and even at San Siro but only in the Coppa Italia. In the league, however well Lazio played they could not win at San Siro when faced with red and black shirts (they had beaten Inter several times).
Milan currently had 13 points while Lazio had 18. Both came from home wins.
Milan's manager was initially Marco Giampaolo but he had been replaced by Stefano Pioli after seven games. Their main players were Gianluigi Donnarumma, Alessio Romagnoli, Theo Hernández, Franck Kessie, Giacomo Buonaventura, Lucas Biglia, Hakan Çalhanoglu, Lucas Paquetá and Rafael Leão.
Lazio finally won 2-1. Ciro Immobile opened the scoring, an unlucky Bastos own goal gave Milan the equaliser but Joaquín Correa got the winner in the 83rd minute.
The jinx was finally over.
Lazio played Napoli on March 3, 2023. Napoli were heading towards their 3rd Scudetto as they were top of the table on 65 points. The Partenopei had won 21 (including Lazio 2-1), drawn 2 and lost 1 (Inter 0-1 away). A dominant campaign. Lazio were doing well but were 20 points behind (W13, D6, L4).
Napoli had Luciano Spalletti as manager and players such as Kim Min-Jae, Amir Rrahmani, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, André-Frank Anguissa, Piotr Zielinski, Stanislav Lobotka, Victor Osimhen, Khvicha K'varatskhelia, Hirving Lozano and Matteo Politano.
Lazio shocked the Neapolitans by winning 1-0. A Matías Vecino goal in the 67th minute was enough to inflict the first home defeat on the future Italian champions.
Lazio played Napoli on September 2, 2023. Napoli were reigning Italian champions and the town was still buzzing even after a long summer of celebrations. The Partenopei had won their first two league matches (Frosinone 3-1 away and Sassuolo 2-0 at home) while Lazio had lost both theirs (Lecce 1-2 away and Genoa 0-1 at home) and there was already talk of "crisi".
Napoli had changed managers from Luciano Spalletti to Rudi Garcia but kept most of their Scudetto winning squad (apart from defender Kim Min-Jae and forward Hirving Lozano) and added midfielders Jens Cajuste (Stades Reims) and Jesper Lindstrøm (Eintracht Frankfurt). They still had main stars Mario Rui, Amir Rrahmani, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Piotr Zielinski, Stanislav Lobotka, Matteo Politano, Kvicha Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen.
Lazio won 2-1 with goals by Luis Alberto and Daichi Kamada (Zielinski had equalised for Napoli). An unpredictable outcome and second consecutive win for Lazio in Naples only six months after the previous one.
Lazio played Bayern Munich on March 14, 2024. It was the first leg of the Champions League last 16.
Three years earlier Lazio had played the Bavarians at the same stage of the tournament and lost 2-6 on aggregate (1-4, 1-2).
Bayern were one of the favourites for the final victory of the competition. The manager was Thomas Tuchel and Die Roten had players such as Manuel Neuer, Alphonso Davies, Matthijs de Ligt, Dayot Upamecano, Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka, Jamal Musiala, Leroy Sané, Serge Gnabry, Thomas Müller, Kingsley Coman and Harry Kane.
Lazio won 1-0 with a Ciro Immobile penalty but with Bayern in ten men could have scored more. Still, it was an unexpected and prestigious win.
Never mind that in the return game Bayern won 3-0...
Lazio played Napoli on December 8 2025. Napoli were on 32 points while Lazio had 28 points. Napoli were one of the favourites for the Scudetto while Lazio were doing better than expected both in A and Europa League but given little chance away to Napoli.
Napoli had Antonio Conte as manager. From the Scudetto winning squad of 2023 they had lost Zielinski, Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia but added players such as Alessandro Buongiorno, Leonardo Spinazzola, Scott McTominay, Billy Gilmour, David Neres and Romelu Lukaku.
Lazio won 1-0 with a brilliant goal by Gustav Isaksen in the 79th minute.
This was the 3rd consecutive season Lazio had won in Naples but still came as a surprise. In the next game Lazio lost 0-6 at home to Inter.
Napoli would go on to win the Scudetto.
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